Ex-FB employee to appear before Delhi Assembly committee on Nov 10
Nov 08, 2020
New Delhi [India], November 8 : The Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace and Harmony, headed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha, has summoned Mark S Luckie, a former employee of Facebook, in wake of several allegations of being biased, against the social media platform.
He has been sent a formal notice, asking him to appear before the committee on November 10 for the relevant proceedings.
Luckie, a digital strategist, former journalist and an author, was employed at Facebook from 2017 to 2018. He led media partnerships for some of the influential social platforms in the world, including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. He has also led digital initiatives for the Washington Post, the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Los Angeles Times, and Entertainment Weekly.
Luckie left Facebook claiming that it inculcates a misguided work system within the company, which has led to division in communities, especially by the actions and inactions of the company.
Highlighting the rampant racism operating within the company's framework, he published a memo where he pointed out that "minorities are finding that their attempts to create safe spaces on Facebook for conversation among themselves are being derailed by the platform itself... Accounts are suspended indefinitely."
The said memo was removed by Facebook citing that it violated its community standards. Significantly, some of the witnesses who deposed before the committee (Awesh Tiwari and Pratik Sinha) have also alleged similar issues where Facebook has been biased while treating the content of persons who have been critical of the ruling dispensation.
For the very first time, an international Facebook employee has come forward to depose before a committee in India. Hence, his testimony will be extremely crucial and critical to the current proceedings carried out by the committee.
Luckie has also asserted that owing to the company's inherent "biased modus of operation, minority communities are not able to trust that Facebook has their best interests at heart, and under-represented groups are being systematically excluded from communication". He has openly called out Facebook for "dismissive attitude towards prevalent prejudices and exclusionary approach in its functionality".
The committee has invited the media to attend the proceedings and do live streaming of the entire proceedings for more public outreach with a view to ensuring transparency.
