Govt summons Meta after PM Modi video briefly removed
Taking strong exception to the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video post addressing India’s youth and assuring stringent measures against paper leaks, the Government has summoned Meta’s global head of public policy. The Government also dismissed the social media’s apology and said it is taking the issue “very seriously.”
Social media giant Meta on Tuesday apologised after a selfie video posted by PM Modi addressing student protesters on July 23 was briefly removed from Facebook before being restored. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said, “The content was removed in error and has since been restored.”
The Ministry of Information and Technology has already sent summons to the global heads of Meta and Instagram.
Meta’s explanation is not reasonable, and deeper discussions are needed, sources said, adding that the matter is “not settled and done”. They further said that if a glitch in the automated system caused the error, then Meta must improve its tools.
The video, posted on July 23 amid the student protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party, was PM Modi’s outreach to youth where he had announced that a Bill containing provisions for strong action against paper leaks will be introduced in Parliament.
In the nearly 3-minute video, the PM had reassured students that the Government viewed paper leaks and examination irregularities with utmost seriousness and would take strict action against the accused.
Over the last few weeks, Meta has faced regulatory scrutiny on a number of issues. The IT ministry issued a notice to WhatsApp earlier, questioning the Meta-owned platform’s proposed username feature, as the Government flagged concerns that it could materially increase online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams, and impersonation attacks.
The Government also slapped a stern notice on Meta over Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM, and demanded a detailed explanation bound to a deadline.
Just a few weeks back, Meta’s announcement of Muse Image, which was then touted as its most powerful AI image generator, drew criticism and user concerns over data privacy, image scraping and consent, and the Indian Government had said, at that point, that it will assess Meta’s Muse AI image generator under the existing legal framework.
Subsequently, however, the social media platform scrapped the controversial feature, which enabled users globally to create AI images using public Instagram accounts. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available,” Meta had said in a global post.
