The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Friday held a third round of discussions with Meta, this time with their technical team, focusing on technical aspects of the social media giant’s platform algorithms, two people aware of the matter said. These discussions on technical grounds are expected to continue over the next couple of days, a senior MeitY official had told HT on Thursday.
The meeting was held in the morning at Electronics Niketan and was presided over by MeitY Secretary S Krishnan, one of the people quoted above said. The discussions are part of the government’s continuing engagement with Meta following the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook Reel on July 28, which had triggered concerns within the government over the company’s content moderation systems and safeguards for high-profile accounts.
The meeting after a global delegation of Meta led by chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan met Union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday and Thursday, and apologised for the temporary restriction of Modi’s post. Meta had attributed the incident to an error in its automated systems, which incorrectly matched the Prime Minister’s Reel with another video, resulting in the post being inaccessible for around five hours.
The government has since sought a deeper understanding of Meta’s algorithms, content moderation policies and compliance mechanisms, particularly the checks and safeguards that determine what content is restricted or removed in India.
{{/usCountry}}The government has since sought a deeper understanding of Meta’s algorithms, content moderation policies and compliance mechanisms, particularly the checks and safeguards that determine what content is restricted or removed in India.
{{/usCountry}}A senior IT ministry official had told HT that while the global delegation accompanying Kaplan was expected to return after its meetings with Indian officials, Meta’s technical team would remain in India and engage with MeitY over the next three to four days.
It is understood that the global delegation has now returned, while the company’s technical team has stayed back for the continuing discussions with the ministry. Meta and MeitY did not immediately respond to a request for comment.