New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government revealed in parliament that it has written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the alleged bias of the platform and urged it to ensure integrity and neutrality of the platform and the people working for it.The Union minister of state for electronics and information technology Sanjay Dhotre, in response to multiple questions on the issue of hate speech or messages on Facebook, said in a written reply that the Centre took note of a media report published in Wall Street Journal, titled ‘Facebook’s hate-speech rules collide with Indian politics‘.The reply further stated that the minister has written to Zuckerberg about the alleged bias of the platform and to ensure integrity and neutrality of the platform and the people working for it. “The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has already taken up the matter with Facebook,” it added.The issue of hate speech and privacy on major social media platforms figured prominently in the written questions raised by Lok Sabha MPs on Wednesday. These questions pertained to hate speech on Facebook and the privacy policy of WhatsApp.Congress MP Anumula Revanth Reddy asked “if the Government intended to investigate the role of Facebook, a foreign company, in displaying a biased attitude toward regulating hate speech content across its platforms” and “whether the Government has assessed the implications of Facebook‘s content regulation policies on Indian elections and democracy”. A similar question was asked by Subbarayan K. of the Communist Party of India.The WSJ report claimed that Facebook had diluted its hate speech rules in India, so as to not anger the BJP. The tech giant also did not ban BJP and Hindutva leaders who it found were spreading hate against a community, a violation of its community standards.Also Read: Backstory: How Facebook and BJP Ring-Fenced IndiaWhatsApp asked to review proposed privacy policy changesA number of MPs also asked questions about the privacy policy of WhatsApp. To a question from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Ravikumar D., on whether the government proposed to intervene in the issue of WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy, Dhotre said his ministry has taken cognizance of the announcement by the platform of its new privacy policy “stated to be applicable to Indian users from February 2021.”While the new policy was to be implemented in February, WhatsApp delayed it by three months amid severe criticism of the updated terms. “There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts,” WhatsApp said while announcing the delay.He said, “[T]o safeguard the interest of Indian users, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked WhatsApp to review the proposed privacy policy changes and also to explain the rationale of the same.”The Centre has also written to WhatsApp, asking the messaging service to withdraw its updated terms.To another query on the measures taken by the Centre to prevent social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp from “misusing the personal data of the citizens” of this country, the minister responded by saying that “Section 43A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 provides for safeguards for sensitive personal information collected by a body corporate including social media platforms.”He further said, “The government has already moved the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in Parliament which is presently under the consideration of the Joint Committee of Parliament. The Bill provides for safeguards of privacy and interests of the Indian citizens.”The logo of WhatsApp is pictured on a T-shirt. Photo: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri/FileNo plan to ban foreign appsReplying to a question from the MPs on whether the Centre has proposed to ban these apps and encourage “indigenous” alternatives, he said, “There is no proposal with MeitY to block apps like WhatsApp.”Further, the minister said, “The government of India launches apps for citizens to promote its Digital India initiative. MeitY, in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission of Niti Aayog, launched Digital India Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge to identify the best Indian apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class apps in their respective categories.”