Meta apologises for temporarily removing PM Modi's Facebook post
Government sources said Meta global officials have been asked to stay back for another round of questioning on Thursday, when IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will meet the company's global executives once again. The meeting will also include executives from Meta's technical team.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, issued an apology for temporarily removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post on their platform. This incident, along with other content moderation failures, including the handling of child sexual abuse content and deepfakes, prompted a meeting between Meta executives and Indian officials.
During the meeting, Meta's global affairs head Joel Kaplan and company CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the error in restricting Modi's post. Government sources revealed that Meta executives acknowledged paying significant sums for boosting certain types of content, particularly child sexual abuse material. The government, after the meeting, pressed Meta to explain its failure in moderating content, particularly illegal content, and its failure to control such content adequately.
The company was also questioned about its algorithms actively curating content, rather than merely hosting it, and the lack of compliance with India's Information Technology Act, which could jeopardize its safe harbor protections. The government demanded an apology from Zuckerberg within three days, warning that Meta's immunity under the IT Act could be withdrawn if no apology was given.
Meta executives admitted their systems were not fully equipped to handle the vast amount of illegal content, and they acknowledged not being able to control all of it.
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