PM Modi Video Removal, Child Abuse Content: What Happened in the Govt-Meta Meeting?

The Centre raised concerns with Meta over the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook video and alleged lapses in tackling child sexual abuse content during a high-level meeting in New Delhi.

Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Meta (Img: Pintrest)

New Delhi:  The government expressed grave concerns to Meta regarding the temporary ban of the video by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook and failure in moderating child sexual abuse materials on the platform.

The discussion lasted for 45 minutes and involved issues such as removal of the video posted by PM Modi aimed at engaging the youth of India, Indian regulations, and inappropriate materials on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Govt Ponders PM Modi Video Ban

The meeting followed a request from the parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology to seek clarification on the removal of the video from the Meta platform. In addition, the committee requested an apology from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, noting that the legal protection enjoyed by Meta under Section 79 of the IT Act could be challenged.

According to the safe harbor clause, social media firms are immune from any kind of legal action on the part of the third-party contents posted by the users on their platforms.

Content Relating to Child Abuse Also Scanned

There were also worries from the government about child sexual exploitative and abuse material appearing in paid ads on Instagram. Meta had already been warned about the matter by the authorities.

Meta delegation was headed by Joel Kaplan, its chief global affairs officer. It also included Neil Potts, Rafael Frankel, Aman Jain and Priya Srinivasan. On behalf of the government, S. Krishnan, Secretary of the IT ministry, was present at the meeting.

Meta Comes Under Greater Scrutiny

PM Modi Video Controversy started when his video message to youth through a selfie while protesting against exam paper leak in Cockroach Janta Party was taken down on Facebook for about five hours.

Meta subsequently called it a technical glitch and apologized for the same. Nevertheless, the government wanted more clarity from them regarding their algorithms and content moderation policies.

On the other hand, legal cases have been filed against Meta’s India head Arun Srinivas and other entities for posting AI and morphed videos of the Prime Minister during student protest.