Meta CEO apologises for child abuse, deepfake content; errors in operating platform: Sources

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for child abuse content, deepfakes and errors in operating the platform, sources said on Wednesday after the company's global team met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, following the government's recent summons over the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post on Facebook.

Government sources said it was made clear to the Meta team that they are not covered under the 'intermediary' definition.

The social media platform selects who receives the content, and Safe harbour under the IT Act is not applicable, according to sources.

Meta team admitted that a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content; they apologised and regretted the mistake, they added.

Meta team, including Global Affairs officer Joel Kaplan, on Wednesday met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and had a separate meeting with IT Secretary S Krishnan.

The meeting assumes significance as the government had summoned Meta's top global executives after Prime Minister Modi's recent Facebook post addressing Indian youth and promising stringent action against paper leaks was briefly restricted on the platform.

While the US-headquartered social media giant had attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had found the explanation "inadequate". The company, which owns Facebook, had said that the content was removed "in error" and was subsequently restored on the platform.

Meta has also been under regulatory scrutiny over the issue of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram, and the government, last month, slapped a notice on the social media giant over the issue.

"There are a range of issues...the CSAM issue was raised, so what measures have been taken regarding that, and synthetically generated information ... to what extent that is being looked at. Then, for prominent personalities when they have verified accounts, if content has to be taken down, there have to be safeguards...all of these will be the issues (taken up)," Krishnan told reporters on Tuesday.

Meta, as one of the leading technology companies in the world, should have the technology to address such issues effectively, he had said.

"We would like to understand from them (Meta) as to why some of these things have not been working the way they are supposed to work, and what are the challenges," Krishnan added.

For platforms, there needs to be a clear understanding of India's law, what compliance must look like, "and a clearer understanding of how they intend to make sure compliance happens", Krishnan said.

Government sources had earlier said that the issue is not just about technical aspects, but about "national security and public order". As the government delivers an ultimatum to Meta, the company’s global team will be "categorically" asked to clarify issues around algorithmic bias, how their algorithm operates and the company's role in public order.

In the immediate aftermath of the issue, Meta had informed the IT Ministry that posts by the prime minister and select prominent accounts will be subject to additional oversight on the platform, with multiple levels of checks involving senior company officials. Meta wrote to the government outlining the specifics of enhanced and rigorous safeguards it implemented (on July 28) for content posted by PM Modi and other prominent accounts.

Modi's July 23 Instagram post, later shared on Facebook, had marked his first direct selfie video aimed at engaging with the youth and underscoring the government's commitment to crack down on paper leaks amid students' protests organised by the Cockroach Janta Party at that time. The Facebook version of the post was briefly restricted by Meta before being restored.

The IT Ministry maintained that Meta's explanation to the government, citing a technical glitch in the automated content filters, was "not reasonable". They had said that if indeed a glitch in the automated system caused the error, then Meta, being a technology company, must surely hasten to improve its own tools.

Meta officials had attributed the error to AI-powered automated content filters reviewing shared posts and subsequent videos that had circulated following the original post by the prime minister. Meta had told the government that its automated filters inadvertently ended up briefly removing the original post itself.

By summoning global executives, the government wants to ensure that Meta's leadership – all the way to the top – is made fully aware of concerns being raised by Indian authorities. The summoning of global executives, rather than only local representatives, underscores the Centre's intent to directly engage Meta's international leadership on platform accountability.

A Parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday demanded an apology from Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg over Modi's speech being removed from Facebook.

In a letter to the secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, a director of the Lok Sabha secretariat said protection and immunity for Zuckerberg may be withdrawn if there is no apology in three days.