The TLDR: Over the weekend, a Wall Street Journal investigation into Facebook’s ties with BJP went viral. In essence, it showed that two top FB India execs were responsible for blocking all attempts to pull down hate-filled posts by BJP and Hindutva leaders. The reason: “punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country, Facebook’s biggest global market by number of users.”

This story, however, is rooted in a close relationship that was established way back in 2014—when PM Modi first ran for election. And the lessons learned when Facebook lost the fight to bring Free Basics to India.

We piece together reporting over the years—in Bloomberg, NewsClick, The Guardian etc—to show you how and why we arrived at this dismal point. And we connect the dots to reveal Facebook’s global playbook—which explains why it’s been protecting the worst excesses of everyone from Donald Trump to Rodrigo Duterte to Narendra Modi.

The Wall Street Journal story

The investigation—based on interviews with former and current employees—shows that the company’s Public Policy Director, Ankhi Das, intervened to prevent action against Hindutva BJP leaders. These include:

• T. Raja Singh has called for the killing of Rohingya Muslim immigrants, labeled Muslims as traitors and declared that those who kill cows should be slaughtered, as well.
• Anantkumar Hegde has accused Muslims of waging a Corona Jihad—i.e. deliberately spreading the virus.
• Kapil Mishra posted a video—threatening anti-CAA protesters in Delhi—which triggered targeted violence that left at least 36 Muslims dead. 
• Company sources tell WSJ that Das “opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence.”
• Also: Her double standards are “part of a broader pattern of favoritism by Facebook toward Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu hard-liners.”

Point to note: All these men are still on Facebook and Instagram—with their hundreds of thousands of followers. But the company took down some of their posts after being contacted by WSJ. 

Why this matters: On paper, Facebook has strict policies against hate speech and fake news. The staff concluded that Singh’s rhetoric warranted a permanent ban under Facebook’s “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” policy—which was nixed by Das. Kapil Mishra’s video was taken down, but as WSJ notes, the engagement for his page soon grew from a couple hundred thousand interactions a month to more than 2.5 million.

Jab BJP and Facebook met…

The relationship between Modi and Facebook followed a near-exact script that has replicated itself around the world. Here’s how this plotline plays out.

Looking for a rishta: In any election, FB’s fave candidate is a rising neta with big pockets—and in a market it is eyeing. Back in 2017, Bloomberg News (via Economic Times) laid out the playbook of the company’s global government and politics team:

“Politicians running for office can be lucrative ad buyers. For those who spend enough, Facebook offers customized services to help them build effective campaigns, the same way it would Unilever NV or Coca-Cola Co. ahead of a product launch...

 

At meetings with political campaigns, members of [the] team sit alongside Facebook advertising sales staff who help monetize the often viral attention stirred up by elections and politics...

 

Once those candidates are elected, their relationship with Facebook can help extend the company’s reach into government in meaningful ways, such as being well positioned to push against regulations.”

Point to note: At the time, Facebook had been shut out of China and had just crossed the 100 million mark—and was growing the fastest in India. 

A suitable match: Candidate Modi in 2014 checked every box. And Team Modi—determined to replicate Obama’s Facebook success—was the company’s only political client in India. Its liaison team was led by none other than Ankhi Das—who worked closely with the campaign, and made regular visits to Modi’s office in Gandhinagar. 

A 2016 Guardian article notes:

“The person who ran Modi’s social media operation told me that Facebook was extraordinarily responsive to requests from the campaign, and recalled that Das ‘never said no’ to any information the campaign wanted.”

That kind of personal attention was rewarded as Modi swept into power—his popularity offering not just ad moolah but also insane levels of user engagement. In a Quartz op-ed, Das bragged:

“From the day elections were announced to the day polling ended, 29 million people in India conducted 227 million interactions (posts, comments, shares, and likes) regarding the elections on Facebook. In addition, 13 million people engaged in 75 million interactions regarding Modi.” 

The payoff: Soon after, Modi required all party leaders to have a significant social media presence—no doubt, with the assistance of FB’s global team which held a series of workshops and sessions to train 6,000 government officials. And Modi’s Facebook followers soon rose to 43 million, making him the most popular world leader on the platform. The number of Facebook users in 2015, the year after the election: 135 million—which more than doubled to 313 million by 2019. 

Riding Modi’s coattails...

Das’ close relationship with the soon-to-be elected government did not go unrecognized. As The Ken notes, she quickly rose to a position of unparalleled power, commanding four suites at Taj Mansingh, Delhi, at Rs 30 lakh/month for the policy team—overriding the objections of the CEO Umang Bedi at the time. According to The Guardian:

“...[Das] had uncommonly good access in Delhi’s corridors of power. Her presence seemed to open any door, a Facebook executive told me. ‘We used to joke that it was like she was Modi’s granddaughter.’”

And when Mark Zuckerberg came to India to sell his big Free Basics plan—in partnership with Jio, of course—Das was front-and-center:

“She set up the entire Zuck visit: meetings, interactions, Chandauli. Nearly single-handedly… If you look at some of these images from that trip, observe who stands right next to Mark Zuckerberg. It’s Ankhi [Das].”

Riding Das’ coattails: was Shivnath Thukral—whose resume includes a stint at NDTV, head of branding and strategic initiatives at the Essar group and crafting a key online initiative for Modi’s 2014 campaign. He was hired as Das’ number two in 2017—after being “coaxed” by her.  At the time, an insider called it “a very cosy, convenient arrangement.” More importantly, having another Modi insider on the team didn’t hurt.

Aap chronology samajhiye…

Facebook’s relationship with the government has not been without its hiccups. The most prominent failure: the government ultimately blocked its Free Basics plan in 2016 despite the furious lobbying. The lesson learned from that failure: “To do things right, you need someone in policy who is a strategist and a skilful tactician.”

Das, therefore, grew more powerful, as policy (read: regulatory influence) became all-important to prevent any future debacles:

“Understandably, this policy-first positioning came after the company’s biggest public setback in India… It is wasting no time in gearing up for the 2019 elections, just over 18 months from now. And Das could be its biggest trump card in the build-up to the elections.”

Cue 2019: The BJP spent Rs 27.4 crore on social media in the last election—of which Rs 10.3 crore ended up in Zuckerberg’s pockets. Also: An Alt News analysis of one month in 2019 showed that pro-BJP pages and central government accounted for 70% of Facebook’s ad revenue in India. But this time around—as added insurance—Zuckerberg has teamed up once again with its old Free Basics partner, plonking down a $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms. After all, even Das can’t match the unparalleled influence of Mukesh-bhai.

And this isn’t just India...

Just last week, Facebook was caught protecting rightwing pro-Trump sites—with its VP for global policy Joel Kaplan stepping in to block employees from taking down their fake news posts. Who is Kaplan? The former chief of staff to George W. Bush and the man who helped Brett Kavanaugh—Trump nominee to the Supreme Court—fend off sexual harassment charges. And he “has taken on a larger role” within the company ever since Trump’s election—which spent 80% of its digital ad budget on Facebook in 2016. Sound familiar?

Postscript: The Opposition has come out swinging over the WSJ report, and demanded a parliamentary probe into FB’s links with the BJP—and threatened to take legal action if their request is ignored. A name that popped up often in their statements to the press: Ankhi Das.

The bottomline: Given this backstory, it is hardly shocking that Das intervened to protect BJP leaders. It’s inevitable, even expected. This is exactly why she was hired. This isn’t politics for Facebook. This is business.

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Reading list

• The WSJ piece is behind a paywall, but you can read the highlights in The Print.
• Bloomberg’s 2017 piece on Facebook’s political unit and its role in promoting propaganda is available on Economic Times.
• The Ken story on Das is only available to their subscribers, but you could ask one of them to gift the read to you.
• A must read: Rahul Bhatia’s 2016 deep dive in The Guardian into the Free Basics debacle—which helps explain why Facebook is doing what it’s doing now.
• Cyril Sam and Paranjoy Thakurta did a five part series on the ‘Real Face of Facebook’—which was eventually published as a book. You can find all of them in the NewsClick archive here. The ones we read most closely: parts 2 and 3.
• WSJ references Das’ personal politics, specifically this post she shared. It makes derogatory references to Muslims, but is penned by a Muslim, Najmul Hoda. If you want to compare and contrast, this is her post celebrating Janmashtami prayers led by her sister Rashmi—who apparently was the president of RSS’ student wing at JNU. Yes, this is the political version of the inkblot test.
• The Verge has more on Joel Kaplan, and Washington Post details the close relationship between the Trump campaign and Facebook.
• Looking prescient now: Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien who made this fiery statement about Facebook in Parliament back in 2019.