Senior global executives from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, will meet officials from the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on August 5 and 6 following the temporary takedown of a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a government official said on Tuesday.
MeitY summoned the tech giant after a Facebook reel by the Prime Minister addressing nationwide protests over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) paper leak was removed from the platform for about five hours on July 28.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi, MeitY secretary S Krishnan said the discussions will cover non-compliance with Indian laws, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), synthetically generated content, and safeguards for verified accounts, alongside the video removal.
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“There will be a range of issues…We know that the CSAM issue was raised…what measures have been taken regarding that? Synthetically generated information…to what extent that is being looked at? For prominent personalities, they have verified accounts. When content gets taken down, there have to be safeguards. We would like to understand from them as to why some of these things have not been working the way they are supposed to work and what are their challenges. After all, these are some of the world’s leading technology companies and they should have technology to make this work,” Krishnan said.
{{/usCountry}}“There will be a range of issues…We know that the CSAM issue was raised…what measures have been taken regarding that? Synthetically generated information…to what extent that is being looked at? For prominent personalities, they have verified accounts. When content gets taken down, there have to be safeguards. We would like to understand from them as to why some of these things have not been working the way they are supposed to work and what are their challenges. After all, these are some of the world’s leading technology companies and they should have technology to make this work,” Krishnan said.
{{/usCountry}}The August 5-6 meeting was convened after the ministry expressed disappointment with Meta’s India policy team, which it felt was not adequately conveying government concerns to the company’s US leadership, Hindustan Times reported earlier.
The secretary did not disclose the names of the executive delegation visiting India. Meta’s global public policy and global affairs leadership is headed by Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer, and Kevin Martin, vice-president and head of global policy. An emailed query sent to Meta seeking comment did not receive a response.
The upcoming meeting follows demands from Nishikant Dubey, chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology and Communications, for an apology from Meta chief executive officer and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg over the video removal.
Dubey stated that failure to issue an apology could result in Meta losing its safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act. Section 79 grants online intermediaries immunity from liability for third-party content hosted on their platforms, contingent upon compliance with due diligence requirements and lawful government directions.
However, legal protection under safe harbour is statutory and cannot be revoked unilaterally by the government. An intermediary’s entitlement to immunity remains a legal matter for determination by courts based on compliance with conditions specified under Section 79.
During the parliamentary committee meeting, a Meta executive apologised for the removal of the Prime Minister’s video, attributing the incident to an algorithmic error, according to people present at the meeting who spoke to Hindustan Times. The executive assured the panel that Meta would amend its algorithm to prevent recurrence.
A separate query sent to Meta regarding the committee chairperson’s demand for Zuckerberg’s apology also went unanswered.