Facebook reportedly hasn’t banned a violent religious extremist group in India because it fears for its business prospects and staff’s safety

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California September 27, 2015.

REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Facebook’s security team determined earlier this season that Bajrang Dal, a religious extremist group in India, was likely a”dangerous organization” which ought to be banned from the system under its own principles, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
However, The Journal reported, Facebook became worried about banning the group following its safety team warned that doing so could cause strikes against Facebook’s staff.
Facebook’s inconsistency in enforcing its rules in India continues to be motivated by fears that backlash from India’s nationalist ruling party may damage business, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
The social networking business has increasingly come under fire over its battle to effectively and continuously authorities its platform — especially outside of the US, in which users have leveraged its own platform to ease cultural violence, sabotage democratic procedures, and crack down on free speech.
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Facebook determined that a religious extremist group in India likely ought to be banned from the stage for encouraging violence, but it’s yet to take action because of concerns over its staff’s security and political repercussions that may hurt its organization, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu nationalist group, has physically assaulted Muslims and Christians, and one of its leaders recently threatened violence against Hindus who attend church on Christmas.

Earlier this season, Facebook’s security team decided that Bajrang Dal likely was a”dangerous organization” as well as each its policies against these groups, ought to be taken out from the system entirely, according to The Journal.

However, Facebook hesitated to enforce those rules following its safety team concluded that doing so could damage its business in India as well as possibly activate physical attacks from its employees or facilities, The Journal reported.

“We ban individuals or entities after following a careful, rigorous, and multi-disciplinary process. We enforce our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy globally without regard to political position or party affiliation,” a Facebook firm spokesperson told Business Insider.

According to the Journal, Facebook refused to state whether it ultimately made a decision to designate Bajrang Dal rather than dangerous.

This is not the first time Facebook has faced criticism over the way that it has – or has not – enforced its own rules, even in India or even within India in the past few months.

The Journal reported in August that Facebook refused to apply its own hate speech policies to T. Raja Singh, a politician from India’s nationalist ruling BJP party, regardless of his forecasts to shoot Muslim immigrants and risks to destroy mosques.

Facebook workers had concluded that, in addition to breaking up the corporation’s policies,” Singh’s rhetoric in the real world was harmful enough to justify kicking him off the stage entirely. But, Facebook’s top public policy executive in India overruled them, arguing that the political repercussions could damage the organization’s company (India is the own biggest and fastest-growing market worldwide by number of consumers ).

The inner strain over Bajrang Dal reflects the frequent challenges Facebook confronts when its gains come into conflict with regional governments and legislation, rules that the company has established for its own stage, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pledges to maintain free speech and democratic procedures.

In August, Facebook took the uncommon step of lawful action against Thailand’s government over its demand that the business block users inside the nation from accessing a bunch critical of its king, although it’s complying with the government’s request while the case proceeds in court.

But BuzzFeed News reported in August which Facebook ignored or failed to immediately address dozens of incidents of political corruption and efforts to undermine democracy across the world, particularly in smaller and non-Western countries.

And as Zuckerberg has defended Facebook’s criticism of President Donald Trump and other politicians out of the hatred speech and fact-checking policies, human rights activists across the world have slammed the social networking giant for denying to protect the free speech of those not in power.

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