New Delhi: After two days of intensive questioning of Meta, the government Friday shifted to technical discussions with the social media giant, during which the company detailed how it plans to address the Centre’s concerns over deepfakes, child sexual abuse material and unlabelled synthetically-generated content on its platforms, sources said.
Sources told PTI that the government has asked Meta to take specific measures and report back on the outcomes.
Officials will regularly follow up with the company on its progress, sources asserted.
One of the key issues discussed was the reappearance, continued circulation and virality of AI-generated harmful content, even after it has been flagged. The government also questioned Meta on why AI-generated videos without labels continue to remain visible on its platforms despite the IT rules requiring synthetic content to be identified and labelled, sources said.
The government asked Meta to have greater human oversight in content moderation, with enhanced awareness and understanding of Indian languages, as well as local nuances.
Another meeting is expected to be held in the coming week, the sources said.
After two days of meetings that saw IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw questioning Meta’s team, led by global affairs head Joel Kaplan, on the content recommendation algorithms and the social media giant’s compliance with local laws, day three of discussions was “technical”. It delved deep into measures proposed by the company to address the government’s concerns.
Meta explained how its systems work and outlined how it plans to address the government’s concerns over deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and bot accounts. The company told the government that it has solutions to tackle these issues and detailed how they could be deployed.
Government sources said the objective was not censorship, but to ensure that the company complies with Indian laws.
Sources had earlier said that the company admitted there were “serious issues” and assured it will take continuous action to resolve them.
The government will continue to press the company to undertake sustained measures, actions and improvements to address its various concerns, they added.
Meta’s global team had met Vaishnaw and IT Secretary S Krishnan on both days, following the government’s summons over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post recently.
On Thursday, the Meta team was asked if it is adhering to Indian laws, grilled on algorithmic issues, and guardrails that ensure constitutional and legal requirements are being met.
The social media company had assured that it is indeed serious and “working hard” to address concerns around deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, bots and synthetic content.
On Wednesday, 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”, government sources had earlier said.
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, had 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, also 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.
