Facebook has said that it won’t bow to political pressure when enforcing its policies on elections integrity and hate speech. In India, the story’s not so simple. https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/facebook-hate-speech-india-politics-muslim-hindu-modi-zuckerberg-11597423346#click=https://t.co/49vZGPni14

The company's top India policy official -- who lobbies the government and oversees content policy decision -- blocked the company's safety staff from banning a ruling party politician who they found was a "dangerous individual" that was instigating real world violence.

The same official intervened to prevent Prime Minister Modi's party from being called out for its ties to a misinformation network ahead of the 2019 elections. Instead, Facebook shamed a rival political party which had allegedly done the same thing much less successfully.

To pacify advertisers and employees upset over hate speech and election meddling, Mark Zuckerberg's said the company will not allow its platform to be used to promote violence. But in India -- where lynchings and communal riots have become increasingly common -- it has been.

Cracking down on this stuff would cause a rift with the government, Facebook's Indian policy head said internally. In a country that just banned TikTok and is central to Facebook's business plans, realpolitik won out, our sources told us.