According to a report by Reuters on August 5th, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, has apologized to the Indian government for the child sexual abuse content on the company's platform and operational mistakes.
According to sources cited by financial media Moneycontrol, Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the presence of child sexual abuse content, deepfake content on the Meta platform, as well as operational vulnerabilities in the platform.
The media further stated that this apology was made during a meeting between Meta executives and Indian government officials on Tuesday.
Meta's main social media applications include Facebook and Instagram.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported, citing a senior official from India's Electronics and Information Technology Ministry, that in July this year, the Indian government ordered Meta to remove advertisements and related content on Instagram that promoted child sexual abuse.
The Indian government also requires Meta to explain within 7 days why advertisements containing such content can appear on its platform.
Meta stated that it has a “zero tolerance” policy towards content involving child sexual abuse, and will continue to strengthen its detection systems for such content.
Last month, after a brief restriction on a post by Indian Prime Minister Modi on Facebook, the Indian Ministry of Information Technology summoned executives from Meta. Meta stated that the post was mistakenly blocked due to operational errors.
Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement on Wednesday that he has apologized to India's Information Technology Minister for the temporary restrictions on Modi's posts in July this year.
Caplan said, "On behalf of Meta, I would like to express my apologies to the minister regarding the erroneous restriction on Prime Minister Modi's post.
According to a senior police officer, the Hyderabad police have initiated an investigation against Arun Srinivas, the head of Meta India, on the grounds that he posted a video allegedly depicting Modi in a ‘derogatory manner’ on Facebook.
This year, India has tightened regulations on internet content, reducing the legal exemptions that platforms have for user-generated content. At the same time, this has increased the risk of legal liability for platform managers.
Since February this year, platforms must delete illegal content within 3 hours after receiving a notice from the court or government. Previously, the time limit was 36 hours. Failure to do so will result in the loss of the aforementioned legal protection.
