Meta social media platforms told to act on edited visuals, misleading claims amid SIR protests — What Govt advisory says

The Government of India has directed Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to review its content recommendation systems in order to prevent users from being exposed to a limited range of narratives and to strengthen measures against content that could incite public disorder or violence. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory on October 10, requesting Meta to provide contextual information for photographs, videos, graphics, and other content depicting public events, especially when the authenticity, date, location, or circumstances of the content are unclear.

The advisory comes in the wake of protests in Delhi led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition parties demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Additionally, the ministry has asked Meta to review its recommendation and content-ranking mechanisms to prevent the amplification of potentially misleading or manipulated information.

The IT Ministry has expressed concerns that Meta's platforms may be disproportionately exposing users to a single or limited set of narratives and have observed that certain content relating to public events is being prominently displayed and recommended to users.

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