New Delhi: Representatives of social media platforms like Google, Meta, YouTube and top officials of the ministries of Home and MeitY Monday appeared before a parliamentary panel on the issue of social media regulation.
The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, headed by BJP member Nishikant Dubey, was held days after the government summoned Meta’s global team for briefly restricting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post.
Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) S Krishnan and representatives of social and digital media platforms –Snapchat, Google, X (formerly Twitter), Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) and YouTube — appeared before the committee to discuss the subject ‘Social and Digital platforms and their regulation’.
Last week, the MeitY summoned Meta’s global team on issues relating to algorithmic bias, the platform’s algorithmic processes and their role in public order after the social media company briefly restricted the prime minister’s Facebook post, sources had said Friday.
In the Facebook post, PM Modi was addressing India’s youth and promising stringent action against paper leaks.
While the US-headquartered social media giant had attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised, the MeitY found the explanation “inadequate”.
The company had said that the content was removed “in error” and was restored on the platform.
Government sources pointed out that the matter is not just about technical aspects, but about “national security and public order”.
Hyderabad Cyber Crime police has also registered cases against Meta India head Arun Srinivas and certain accounts on Facebook and Instagram over allegedly morphed and AI posts targeting PM Modi.
Government sources said that when rules and laws are violated, liabilities are bound to arise.
Sources further said that the impact of social media on society is well-documented. They also cited studies indicating the extent to which the excessive use of social media can adversely affect the cognitive and mental well-being of children and others.
