Meta faces second day of grilling
The Union Government has sought clarifications from Meta’s visiting global team regarding the company’s adherence to the laws of the land, pursuant to summons issued in connection with the recent temporary restriction of a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources indicated on Thursday.
Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met Meta’s global team on Thursday, sources said, adding that the ministry’s discussions with technical teams will continue thereafter. Meta’s team was grilled by the Government for the second consecutive day after PM’s July 23 Facebook post was briefly restricted on the platform. Meta will also be questioned on its algorithms, whether its compliance mechanism has sufficient checks and balances, and whether its guardrails meet constitutional and legal requirements, Government sources said.
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).
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 the restriction. On Wednesday, Kaplan and his team met IT Secretary S Krishnan, and then the IT Minister.
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 illegal content. They admitted that they are not able to control all of it,” Government sources said.
On Wednesday, Government sources said Meta had apologised for the temporary removal of PM post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes. Kaplan said in a written statement that he apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error. Government sources added that the apology originated from company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by BJP Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey had earlier sought an apology from Zuckerberg over the removal of the post, warning that protection and immunity available could be withdrawn if no response was forthcoming within three days.
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.
