The Indian parliamentary standing committee on communications and information technology held a two-hour closed-door meeting on August 3 with Meta Platforms Inc. following the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook video. According to Mint, the meeting was chaired by parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey and attended by 14 BJP members out of 23 total committee members, with opposition parties closing ranks to question Meta over the incident. The committee sought an apology from Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and raised a contentious request for blanket removal of safe harbour protection for Meta in India, which could have far-reaching implications for how internet intermediaries operate in the country.
The Indian government has officially clarified that Meta Platforms' platforms must be governed by Indian law, not merely by the company's global policies, as reported by PTI citing government sources. According to NDTV Profit, the government has not sought any overhaul of the platform's algorithms, with officials noting that it would be factually inaccurate to say that the government had directed Meta to completely overhaul its algorithm. The core intent of recent engagements with Meta is to ensure the platform's guidelines and content policies are fully aligned with Indian law amid other concerns. While certain concerns remain, officials said the discussions are aimed at securing concrete changes from the company rather than simply seeking assurances.
A primary point of contention between the government and Meta appears to be lack of cultural understanding from the company's side. As reported by ANI, sources from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that India's cultural context is often not fully understood by teams based outside the country. Meta needs greater local input including a stronger grasp of Indian languages and cultural nuance to moderate content effectively. According to The Times of India, officials said Meta needs greater local input, including stronger understanding of Indian languages and cultural nuances, to improve content moderation in India. The report also flagged gaps in Meta's understanding of India's linguistic and cultural environment, with teams operating outside the country may not always grasp local context adequately.
The government has demanded comprehensive safeguards against deepfake content, specifically calling for a 'human-in-the-loop' mechanism for reviewing and taking down suspected deepfake content rather than relying solely on automated systems. As reported by NDTV Profit, Meta has been asked to introduce specific measures to ensure that deepfake content identified and removed from the platform does not recur. The government has also conveyed that content posted by prominent verified accounts should not automatically be categorised as deepfakes, with such cases requiring appropriate human review before action is taken. This represents a significant shift from previous discussions, as officials had previously questioned why synthetically generated content continues to be amplified by Meta's algorithms.
The centre has sought clarity on Meta's algorithms, questioning why users are frequently shown content unrelated to their stated interests. As reported by NDTV Profit, the government wants greater clarity on how Meta's algorithms operate, particularly how they determine and recommend content to users. Meta was specifically asked why synthetically generated content continues to be amplified by its algorithm, with officials insisting that once such content is flagged, it should neither be recommended further nor allowed to resurface repeatedly. The parliamentary committee has recommended blanket removal of Meta's safe harbour protection in India, which could have significant implications for the company's operations. Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, social media intermediaries are not legally responsible for third-party content, but this incident has raised questions about whether Meta's actions constitute a violation of due diligence requirements.
The latest questioning follows a significant incident where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook video addressing students and youth and promising stringent action against examination paper leaks was restricted for about four hours and 30 minutes on the platform. As reported by News On AIR, Meta later restored the post, attributing its removal to an error by AI-powered automated content filters, and apologised. However, as noted in Business Standard, the apology alone is insufficient given the broader implications of algorithmic censorship. The incident has made visible what millions of Indians experience routinely - unexplained content takedowns with no notice, reasons, or named decision-makers. The parliamentary standing committee has rightly demanded the complete audit trail, with Meta's inability to answer basic questions about who flagged the post and why it survived internal review highlighting the opaque nature of current moderation processes.
