Zuckerberg apologises to India over deepfakes, child sexual abuse content on Meta platforms: Sources

Zuckerberg also apologised for the errors in operating the intermediary platforms, the sources said.

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

The development took place during a meeting of senior global executives from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Zuckerberg also sent his apology through top officials for the errors in operating the intermediary platforms, the sources said. “Meta admitted that a lot of money was paid for boosting certain types of content. They accepted that a lot of illegal content was being promoted. The paid promotion was carried out for a specific audience. They apologised and regretted the mistake,” they added.

Earlier in the day, a Parliamentary panel gave Zuckerberg three days to apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video from Facebook and threatened to withdraw immunity if it was not done, a move that may lead to prosecution and registration of an First Information Report (FIR). The parliamentary standing committee on information technology, headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, also demanded action against intermediary platforms that carry CSEAM and demeaning material against women.

“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. They will be called again,” the source quoted above said.Meta’s Global Affairs officer Joel Kaplan was a part of the team that met Vaishnaw, and also held a separate meeting with IT Secretary S Krishnan.

The Union government had summoned Meta's top global executives after PM Modi's recent Facebook post addressing Indian youth and promising stringent action against paper leaks was briefly restricted on the platform. While the US-headquartered social media giant had attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised, MeitY said it had found the explanation "inadequate". The company, which owns Facebook, said that the content was removed "in error" and was subsequently restored on the platform.

It could not be immediately ascertained whether Zuckerberg apologised for removing PM Modi’s video of addressing students and Gen Z regarding examination controversies and strict actions against paper leaks from Facebook.

The development also comes amid growing scrutiny of Meta’s content moderation systems. A BBC Eye investigation earlier reported observing around 30 unique advertisements allegedly promoting child sexual abuse material, which it reported to the platform and Indian authorities.

"There are a range of issues...the CSAM issue was raised, so what measures have been taken regarding that, and synthetically generated information ... to what extent that is being looked at. Then, for prominent personalities when they have verified accounts, if content has to be taken down, there have to be safeguards...all of these will be the issues (taken up)," Krishnan told reporters on Tuesday. "We would like to understand from them (Meta) as to why some of these things have not been working the way they are supposed to work, and what are the challenges," he added.

Earlier this week, the committee held a meeting with representatives of the ministries of Home Affairs, Electronics and Information Technology as well as the platforms Snapchat, Google, X, Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) and YouTube on 'Social and Digital Platforms and their Regulation'. A parliamentary standing committee can only recommend, the action has to be taken by the government.

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