The Wall Street Journal has accused Facebook of ignoring hate speech by a BJP leader and three other pro-Hindutva figures to protect its interests in India. Back in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking to the Facebook CEO about social media's impact on his life. Excerpts…
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00:00And that's why I tell all the politicians, all the politicians of the world that running away from social media is of no use.
00:09You should join. You should try to find out.
00:14A good government works when you have a lot of information channels.
00:22We received more than 40,000 comments and questions on our Facebook post about this townhouse.
00:30That's pretty incredible engagement.
00:32And several people have flown in today to ask their questions.
00:38But before we call them up, I actually am going to start with one for you.
00:42You were one of the early adopters of the Internet and social media and Facebook.
00:48And did you at that point think that social media and the Internet would become an important tool for governing and citizen engagement and foreign policy?
01:00When I adopted social media, I didn't know that I would become the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister.
01:10So I didn't think that social media could help me in governance.
01:19When I joined social media, I had a curiosity about technology.
01:28I saw that I was trying to understand the world through books.
01:36But it's human nature to prefer a guide over a textbook.
01:49Social media did this for me.
01:52In a very short period of time, I used to get what I needed in just a few words.
02:00And the other benefit was that I wasn't very educated.
02:06I didn't have the good fortune to acquire a lot of knowledge.
02:12But social media filled my shortcomings.
02:18In just a few words, my world was running.
02:22And because of that, there was a big change in my thought process.
02:28I used to think of the world around me.
02:33But I got an opportunity to touch the whole world.
02:39I started to connect.
02:43And as I started to connect, the world started to accept me for who I am.
02:56And the biggest happiness for a person is that
03:01when the world accepts you for who you are,
03:07there is no greater joy than that.
03:13Otherwise, people would say,
03:15you are good, but this would have been better.
03:18You are very good, but there is no problem with social media.
03:25When I joined the government, all my doors were open.
03:31I saw that the government has a problem.
03:37There is a huge gap between the government and the people.
03:42There is a huge gap.
03:45And when you find out, it's been five years.
03:48When the election results come out, you realize that there was such a big gap.
03:55Because of social media, there is daily voting.
03:59I'm talking right now. Voting must be going on right now.
04:03That Modi is doing right, he is doing wrong.
04:05Today, the power of social media is that
04:09it stops any government from doing wrong.
04:17It is afraid of doing wrong.
04:21And the opportunity to rectify a mistake
04:25used to happen once in the first five years after the election.
04:29Today, it happens every five minutes.
04:33I believe that this has become a great power of democracy.
04:38And that is why I tell all the politicians, all the politicians of the world,
04:43there is nothing going to happen by running away from social media.
04:48You should join. You should try to know it.
04:52A good government runs when you have a lot of information channels.
05:01And if the government is aware, is alert, is conscious,
05:07then they can take corrective measures with real-time information.
05:12They can make a policy framework.
05:15And they can increase the speed of work a lot.
05:20And in that sense, I see that social media has played a very big role in governance.
05:29Today, I am in China.
05:33There is a different structure of social media in China.
05:40But I am also active there.
05:47And I communicate in Chinese language there.
05:52You will be surprised.
05:54I congratulated the Prime Minister of China on his birthday.
06:03For the citizens of China, their Prime Minister's birthday was a news.
06:11And it was so viral. It was so viral all over China.
06:15Now, where has anyone ever thought of this form of diplomacy?
06:21Never thought.
06:24I congratulated the Prime Minister of Israel on his festival in Hebrew.
06:39It went viral.
06:41But the biggest reason came when he sent me his reply in Hindi.
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