Facebook must demonstrate neutrality with thorough revamp: Cong
New Delhi: The Congress urged social media giant Facebook on Wednesday to demonstrate its neutrality with a thorough revamp of its institutional processes and asked it to outline the steps taken to curb the spread of false, polarising, and hate content on its platform.
The party also welcomed the change in Facebook India's leadership team after its head of policy, Ankhi Das, resigned, but said the matter will not be resolved by just changing one individual.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said Facebook must ensure foolproof checks and balances, which cannot be tinkered by an individual's whims and political leanings.
"The Congress party welcomes the change in Facebook India's leadership team. However, the matter will not be resolved by just changing one individual," Venugopal said in a statement.
"Facebook must demonstrate its neutrality through a thorough revamp of its institutional processes and standard operating procedures, so as to ensure foolproof checks and balances that cannot be tinkered by an individual's whims and political leanings. It must also outline the steps taken to curb false, polarising, and hate news or content, spread rampantly on its platform, threatening India's social harmony," the Congress leader said.
The opposition party had demanded the setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to look into the issue.
It had written to Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg after allegations of bias in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by its India operations for not curbing certain hate content posted on the platform by some ruling party members cropped up in the US media.
Facebook had responded to the Congress by reiterating its neutrality and promising due action.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
