Social media giant Facebook chose not to take action against Bajrang Dal, for taking responsibility for an attack on a Delhi church, fearing political repercussions, a report by Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said on Sunday.
The report said, earlier this year, Facebook's safety team had concluded that the organization supported violence against minorities across India and likely qualified the group as "dangerous" and one that should be banned on the platform.
It further stated that the company decided against removing the group following a warning from its security team that cracking down on Bajrang Dal might impact both the company's business prospects and its staff in India.
The report also sheds light on a video that shows Bajrang Dal taking full responsibility for installing a Hindu idol at a church. The outfit has reportedly claimed that the church was being constructed on top of a Hindu temple.
"We enforce our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy globally without regard to political position or party affiliation," said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone, calling the company’s process for determining what entities to ban careful, rigorous and multidisciplinary.
Earlier, in August, the WSJ published an article claiming that the social media giant had been lenient on alleged hate speeches by BJP leaders in order to protect their business prospects in India.
The fallout of the article also led to the resignation of top Facebook India employee Ankhi Das.
In September this year, a parliamentary panel called Facebook's representatives for an inquiry over their role in dealing with hate speech.
Facebook's India head Ajit Mohan appeared before the panel amid a political slugfest with both the BJP and Congress accusing each other of colluding with the social media giant to influence opinion.
After the meeting, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted that, "In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: We met for some three and a half hours and unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl with reps of Facebook."
At present, India is Facebook's largest market.