Meta Begins Action Against Centre’s Concerns Over CSAM, Deepfakes: Report

Meta, the social media giant, is reportedly implementing actions to address the concerns raised by the Central government regarding child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfakes, and unlabelled AI-generated content on its platform. This comes after several discussions between the company and government officials over the handling of CSAM, with the government urging Meta to strengthen its identification and removal of unlawful material.

The Centre has informed Meta that CSAM is in violation of Indian law, warning that failure to comply could result in the loss of safe-harbour protection. Meta's global team has detailed their algorithms and plans to introduce new measures in response to the government's concerns, acknowledging that some issues require "judgment calls and tweaks".

The government aims to ensure compliance with Indian law and limit the harms arising from social media, rather than imposing censorship. One unresolved issue is the persistence of harmful AI-generated material, which continues to resurface even after being flagged, along with the absence of appropriate labels for AI-generated videos on Meta's platforms.

Officials have also urged Meta to increase human oversight of content moderation, particularly for Indian languages and culturally relevant material. The government is separately examining WhatsApp's proposed username feature, which could have implications for other messaging services. This marks a significant stage in the Centre's scrutiny of social media intermediaries, following Meta's temporary removal of a video by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and subsequent restoration due to a content-moderation error.