Meta Defends Compliance as Government Scrutiny Enters Second Day

New Delhi: Meta executives faced a second straight day of questioning by Indian government officials on Thursday over issues including Instagram's content recommendation algorithms and the social media giant's compliance with local laws, government sources said, adding that the company assured that it is working to tackle deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and bot accounts.

The company admitted there were "serious issues" and assured it will take continuous action to resolve them, the sources told PTI after the hour-long meeting.

The government will continue to press the company to undertake sustained measures, actions and improvements to address its various concerns, sources emphasised.

Meta's team, including its global affairs head Joel Kaplan, met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for the second straight day on Thursday following the government's summons over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post recently.

On Thursday, the Meta team faced the Centre's questions on whether it is adhering to Indian laws, the algorithmic issues, as well as guardrails to meet constitutional and legal requirements, government officials said and pointed out that the social media company assured that it is indeed serious and "working hard" to address concerns around deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), bots and synthetic content.

Technical aspects also figured prominently in Thursday's discussions, the sources said.

The series of meetings will go on for 3-4 days in all, and the next round will see Meta's technical executives engaging in discussions with the technical team of the government. IT Secretary S Krishnan may lead the discussions next, sources said.

"We will push them hard, and technical discussions will continue," the source said.

Asked about discussions on the fairness of algorithms, sources said that Meta informed the Centre about its mechanisms and parameters in place to deal with the issue.

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, did not take questions from the media after the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sources further said that the government asked Meta if the company is putting enough 'guardrails' in place in the context of legal and constitutional requirements. The rule of law and the constitution are supreme, and platforms cannot operate in India as per the US or European constitution, the sources pointed out.

"The fundamental question is whether Meta is following India's laws. That has multiple dimensions; there is a technical dimension and a policy dimension. We want to know if their team understands the law," sources said.

The government is not mulling a separate regulator for social media for now, the sources said, adding that the current approach is to address such issues within the existing constitutional framework.

The sources described AI-generated videos and deepfakes as a growing challenge, saying their increasing sophistication threatens public trust. They said authorities continuously monitor platforms such as Meta and Google X, and stressed the need for new mechanisms to preserve trust in society as AI-generated content becomes more convincing.

Overall, Meta was questioned on their algorithms, whether the compliance mechanism has sufficient checks and balances, and guardrails to meet constitutional and legal requirements, government sources said.

This is the second round of questioning of Meta's global team by the government, after the Prime Minister's July 23 Facebook post -- addressing students and youth and promising stringent action against examination paper leaks -- was restricted for about five hours on the platform, raising issues around intermediary accountability.

Meta's global team was immediately summoned by the government to explain why PM's Facebook post was temporarily restricted.

On Wednesday, Kaplan and his team met IT Secretary S Krishnan, and then the IT Minister.

After the Wednesday meeting, government sources had said that Meta apologised for the temporary removal of Modi's post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes and boosting certain content by being paid "a lot of money".

While Kaplan had said in a written statement on Wednesday that he "apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post", government sources, who did not wish to be identified, had said the apology came from company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee, too, sought an apology from Zuckerberg over the removal of Modi's Facebook post, warning in a letter that protection and immunity available could be withdrawn if no apology was forthcoming within three days.

Modi had first posted the selfie video on Instagram. The video was later shared on Facebook, which was restricted by the social media platform. Meta later restored the post, attributing its removal to an error by AI-powered automated content filters, and apologised.

As per government sources, Vaishnaw had asked Meta explicitly 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 to Meta officials, making it clear that non-compliance in discharging intermediary obligations jeopardises the company's Safe Harbour protection (immunity as a platform).

The government, last month, served a notice to 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.