Govt asks Meta to ensure strict adherence to Indian law, content rules

The government has asked Meta to ensure strict adherence to the law of the land, including its algorithms, checks and balances on content uploaded across its platforms, and whether the company has sufficient guardrails to address potential transgressions. 

This was the second consecutive meeting between Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, which took place late Thursday evening. Kaplan had also met Vaishnaw on Wednesday, during which he apologised to the minister on behalf of the company for the erroneous takedown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video addressing students protesting the leaking of the question papers for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Senior government officials from MeitY also questioned Meta executives about the processes and systems the company has in place for various kinds of content, and how it decides content visibility.

“We have given them certain action items on a range of issues that we have monitored over the last several days. For example, their delayed inaction on the restoration of inadvertently taken-down posts has been flagged. Similarly, we have questioned them as to how, despite mechanisms, there is proliferation of child sexual abuse material across their platforms,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

While Kaplan is likely to fly out of India soon and will be unable to attend any further meetings with the IT ministry officials on this trip, sources said that technical, policy, and legal teams from India and the US will continue to meet government officials over the next three to four days to answer all queries.