FB India executive files complaint after receiving threats

PTI, Aug 17, 2020, 4:59 PM IST

New Delhi: Senior Facebook India executive Ankhi Das has filed a complaint with Delhi Police, alleging that she has been receiving “violent threats to her life”, officials said on Monday, August 17.

“The Cyber cell unit is looking into the complaint by Das, who is Facebook”s Director, Public Policy, India, South, and Central Asia,” a senior police official said.

Das filed the complaint on Sunday and alleged that several people were issuing “threats, making sexually colored remarks and defaming her” through online posts.

According to the complaint, the threats are in relation to an article dated August 14, 2020, published in the Wall Street Journal.

In her complaint, she stated she has been receiving threats ever since.

“The content, which even includes my photograph is evidently threatening to my life and body and I fear for my safety as well as that of my family members. The content also maligns my reputation based on a news article and I am subjected to name-calling, cyberbullying and eve-teasing online,” she said.

Das alleged that she was intentionally vilified by the accused due to their “political affiliations” and are now engaging in online and offline abuse, subjecting her to “criminal intimidation and making sexually colored remarks.”

The comments came as the ruling BJP and opposition Congress traded barbs over Facebook’s alleged bias towards the ruling dispensation.

While BJP accused the social media giant of censoring nationalist voices, opposition Congress seized on the Wall Street Journal report that alleged that Facebook”s content policies favor the ruling party.