Facebook India head clears the air on supporting political parties

This announcement comes amid allegations that the firm did not apply hate speech rules for posts by certain ruling party politicians.

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Social media giant Facebook has finally cleared the air and has given its stance on the Indian politics. On Friday, the parent company of WhatsApp and Instagram confirmed it is a non-partisan platform, meaning it doesn't support any one political party. Also mentioned was that Facebook will continue to remove content posted by public figures in the country. 

However, the content will only be removed if it violates its standards. This announcement comes amid allegations that the firm did not apply hate speech rules for posts by certain ruling party politicians.

The statement also comes after a Wall Street Journal report that alleged Facebook's content policies to favour the ruling party in India. Ever since the report came out, both the political parties in India - BJP and Congress, have been attacking each other over Facebook's alleged bias.

"Facebook is and always has been an open, transparent and non-partisan platform where people can express themselves freely. Over the last few days, we have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our policies. We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form," Facebook India Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said in a blog post.

Mohan added that Facebook is impartial to dealing with content and strongly follows its Community Standards.

"We enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position, party affiliation or religious and cultural belief. We have removed and will continue to remove content posted by public figures in India when it violates our Community Standards," he said.