Facebook India head moves SC against Delhi Assembly panel’s notice, hearing today

New Delhi, Sep 22: Ajit Mohan, the India head of social media giant Facebook on Tuesday moved Supreme Court against the Delhi Assembly panel's notice that asked him to appear before it for the social media platform's alleged role in the Delhi riots in February.

The petition will be heard by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.

On Sunday, the Delhi Assembly's Peace and Harmony committee had issued a fresh notice to Mohan asking him to appear before the panel on September 23.

"Any defiance to the subsequent notice for appearance shall be deemed to be an act of breach of constitutionally-guaranteed privileges of the committee," a statement released Sunday afternoon said.

"The indifference exhibited by the representative of Facebook India is also a contempt to the people of Delhi... was unanimously decided... that in the event of subsequent default, (the) committee shall be constrained to invoke its power to initiate breach of privilege proceedings against Facebook India and thus (invite) penal jurisdiction of the house," the statement added.

The summon by the Delhi Assembly panel on peace and harmony follows a recent Wall Street Journal report which claimed that one of Facebook's senior India policy executives intervened in internal communication to stop a permanent ban on a Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker from Telangana after he allegedly shared communally charged posts.

Last month, Facebook had said its social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence and these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation.

"We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position or party affiliation.