Govt to grill Meta global team over algorithmic bias, role in public order

The proposed meeting comes days after Meta had temporarily withheld a video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi before restoring it.

Meta had subsequently said the restriction had been erroneously applied and apologised for the mistake while reinstating the video following a review.

The sources further said that when rules and laws were violated, liabilities would arise, and that the impact of social media on society was well-documented. They also cited studies indicating that excessive use of social media and digital media could adversely affect the cognitive health and mental well-being of children and adults.

“Keeping all these aspects in mind, steps that are needed will be taken," a government source said, asserting that the government was serious about these issues.

The sources said the incident (related to Modi's video) figured prominently in the government's broader concerns over the consistency of the platform's content moderation decisions. The explanations given by Meta were not found to be convincing enough, they further informed.

In the aftermath of the issue, Meta informed the IT Ministry that the posts by the Prime Minister and select prominent accounts would be subject to additional oversight on the platform, with multiple levels of checks involving senior company officials.

Meta wrote to the government outlining the specifics of enhanced and rigorous safeguards it implemented for content posted by the Prime Minister and other prominent account holders.

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police have also registered cases against Meta India head Arun Srinivas and certain accounts on Facebook and Instagram over allegedly morphed and AI-generated posts targeting the Prime Minister.