Zuckerberg Apologizes to Indian Government

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to the Indian government over child sexual abuse material on social media and various operational failures, following a summons by the country's Ministry of Information and Technology after Facebook temporarily removed a post by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

Indian news outlet NDTV reported this information on Wednesday (August 5), citing sources.

According to the report, Meta’s global team met with India's IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, during which Zuckerberg's message of apology was conveyed.

Sources indicate that the Meta team was explicitly informed during the meeting that they do not fall under the definition of an "intermediary." Social media platforms dictate who can view content, and such operations do not fall under the "safe harbor" provisions of the IT Act.

During the meeting, Meta officials acknowledged that substantial funds were funneled into boosting specific content. Indian sources stated that Meta admitted its faults regarding the promotion of illicit content.

Previously, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology took stringent action in July regarding the appearance of child sexual abuse advertisements on Instagram.

At the time, BBC reported, citing a senior Indian official, that Meta had been ordered to immediately remove such ads and content.

Concurrently, the Indian government issued a stern warning and gave Meta a seven-day ultimatum to submit a proper explanation detailing how such unwanted content and advertisements managed to find a place on the platform.

At the time, Meta maintained that it holds a "zero tolerance" policy toward child sexual abuse material, claiming it was continuing to work on strengthening its internal detection systems.

Last month, after Facebook temporarily removed a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Ministry of Information and Technology summoned Meta officials. Meta apologized for the incident, claiming it was an unintentional occurrence caused by an operational error.

Additionally, according to a senior Indian police official, Hyderabad Police filed a case against Meta India head Arun Srinivas over Facebook videos that allegedly depicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a "defamatory" manner.

The Indian government has recently tightened regulations for social media platforms, narrowing the legal protection shield for user-posted content and exponentially increasing the legal accountability of platform executives.

Under India's new rules, which took effect in February, the deadline for removing unlawful content identified by courts or the government has been slashed from 36 hours to a mere 3 hours. Failure to comply within the specified timeframe can strip social media platforms of their legal protection rights.