Government questions Meta over temporary restriction of PM Modi’s Facebook post

The Centre is questioning Meta's global team over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post, with discussions focusing on compliance with Indian laws, content moderation, algorithms, intermediary obligations and safeguards against illegal content on the platform

New Delhi: The government is questioning the visiting Meta team on whether the company is adhering to the law of the land, following summons to the social media giant over temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post recently, sources said on Thursday.

The government and the Meta global team are currently engaged in discussions.

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Meta will also be questioned on their algorithms, whether compliance mechanism has sufficient checks and balances, and guardrails to meet constitutional and legal requirements, government sources said.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is meeting Meta global team on Thursday, sources said, adding that the ministry’s discussions with technical teams will continue thereafter.

This is the second round of questioning of Meta’s global team by the government, after the Prime Minister’s July 23 Facebook post — addressing students and youth and promising stringent action against examination paper leaks — was restricted for about five hours on the platform, raising issues around intermediary accountability.

Meta’s global affairs head Joel Kaplan, who served in the administration of George W Bush — including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy — before joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2011, was summoned by the government to explain why PM’s Facebook post was temporarily restricted.

On Wednesday, Kaplan and his team met IT Secretary S Krishnan, and then the IT Minister.

After the executives of the US tech giant met Vaishnaw on Wednesday, government sources said Meta has apologised for the temporary removal of Modi’s post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes and boosting certain content on being paid “a lot of money”.

While Kaplan, who flew in for meetings with Indian officials, said in a written statement on Wednesday, that he “apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi’s post”, government sources, who did not wish to be identified, said the apology came from company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee, too, sought an apology from Zuckerberg over the removal of Modi’s Facebook post, warning in a letter that protection and immunity available could be withdrawn if no apology was forthcoming within three days.

Modi had first posted the selfie video on Instagram. The video was later shared on Facebook, which was restricted by the social media platform. Meta later restored the post, attributing its removal to an error by AI-powered automated content filters, and apologised.

According to government sources, Vaishnaw had asked Meta point-blank on Wednesday whether the company accepted payments to promote content that could trigger public disorder.

The government read out provisions of Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, making it clear that non-compliance in discharging intermediary obligations jeopardises the company’s safe harbour protection (immunity as a platform).

After the meeting, government sources said Meta executives admitted to failures involving child sexual abuse content and deepfakes and admitted that “a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content”.

Vaishnaw, it is learnt, also asked Meta if it is doing enough to prevent illegal content on their platform.

“They admitted that their systems are not fully geared up for so much of the content which is illegal… They admitted that they are not able to control all of it,” government sources said.

Neither Kaplan nor any other Meta official acknowledged the claims or offered any comments on Wednesday.

The government last month served a notice on Meta over alleged child sexual abuse material in paid advertisements on Instagram, and the meetings, this week, have seen the US giant being grilled on issues such as child sexual abuse material, deepfakes, safeguards for verified and prominent accounts, algorithmic bias, and compliance with Indian laws.