Thread by @IAMCouncil

A very important report released by @FoundationTLS on how Hindutva groups are using Facebook (@Meta) to preach anti-Muslim hate and violence

A thread on major findings 🧵

#StopFundingHate #StopIndianMuslimGenocide

The report shows extensive Hindutva fan page networks are using @Meta to widely amplify hate speech and calls to violence and genocide against Indian Muslims.

Between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021, the monitored fan pages of Yati Narsinghanand, Suresh Chavhanke (Sudarshan News Network) and Pushpendra Kulshrestha. received a total of 160 million interactions, with 48.7K interactions on average daily.

Pages within the actor-fan network consistently show a surge in interaction for inflammatory content. Of 8.54 million interactions that all 32 monitored fan pages of Yati Narsinghanand received in total, 8.49 million interactions occurred on three pages alone.

Interactions among these fan pages peaked during March and April 2021, when Yati Narsinghanand was embroiled in the controversy involving the 14year-old Muslim boy who was beaten on his temple premises.

Interactions with Suresh Chavhanke’s official page peaked between 1-31 Dec 2021, coinciding with religious events calling for genocide. With 200k views, one of the mostwatched videos on this page is the recording of Chavhanke’s inflammatory speech at an event by Hindu Yuva Vahini

Between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021, the number of fan pages dedicated to Narsinghanand has steadily increased in followership providing his opinions with a large megaphone.

Despite @Meta's claim that it curbs hate actors' ability to use the platform, networks in Facebook India seem to grow rapidly, and their hate content is publicly available.

The report identified dangerous content under three broad themes:
- Mobilizing Hindus against Muslims
- Xenophobic content against Muslims
- Calls for the elimination of Muslims.

A business-as-usual scenario without effective content moderation on Meta’s platform such as Facebook has serious human rights implications for Indian minorities, and for India as a democracy.

The report recommended that @Meta must publicly share the human rights impact assessment report on India without dilution. Meta's platforms are used in India to mobilize against Indian minorities.

Such mobilization has a massive impact on basic human rights such as the right to life and the right to dignity. @Meta must therefore reveal the impact of its products on society.

@Meta must enforce community standards on Hate Speech and Dangerous Organisations and Individuals irrespective of political and/or economic pressure. Remove Pages discussed in this report for violation of Meta's content moderation policy.

Read the full report here: thelondonstory.org/wp-content/upl… and follow @FoundationTLS @ritumbra for more updates and media queries.

@sherylsandberg @OversightBoard @finkd @Ilhan @RepAOC @RepRashida @RepBradSherman @SenatorMenendez @RepAndreCarson @RepJayapal @SenatorTester @SenCoryGardner @repdonyoung @ChuckGrassley