Zuckerberg Apologises To India For Content On Meta platforms Depicting Child Sexual Abuse And Deepfakes: Sources

Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Meta has apologised to India for the availability of deepfake and child sexual abuse material (CSEAM) on his social media platforms, said sources in the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Wednesday.

Senior global executives from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, met with MeitY to discuss the development.

According to the reports, Zuckerberg also apologised officials for the mistakes made in running the intermediary platforms. “Meta admitted that a lot of money was paid for boosting certain types of content. They apologised and regretted the mistake,” they added.

A parliamentary panel earlier in the day warned to withdraw Zuckerberg’s immunity if he did not apologise for removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video from Facebook. Failure to do so might result in prosecution and the filing of a First Information Report (FIR). The BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who leads the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, also called for action against intermediate sites that distribute dehumanising content against women and CSEAM.

“It was made clear to them that they are not covered under the Intermediary definition. They select who receives the content. Safe harbour under the IT Act not applicable,” the source quoted above said.

Additionally, Meta’s content control mechanisms are coming under increasing scrutiny. An earlier BBC Eye investigation reported to the platform and Indian authorities that it had seen about thirty distinct advertising purportedly promoting content related to child sexual abuse.