Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for issues related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfakes and errors in operating the company’s platforms during a meeting between Meta’s global team and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, government sources said on Wednesday.

The meeting followed the Centre’s recent summons to Meta after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post was briefly restricted on the platform.

According to government sources, Meta representatives acknowledged mistakes in content moderation and expressed regret over the handling of certain issues. They also admitted that money had been spent to boost specific types of content.

Sources said the government informed Meta that its platform does not qualify as an “intermediary” under the Information Technology Act because it selects and distributes content. Consequently, the safe harbour protections available to intermediaries would not apply, they added.

Meta’s delegation, including Global Affairs officer Joel Kaplan, met Vaishnaw and separately held discussions with IT Secretary S. Krishnan.

The meeting also covered concerns over child sexual abuse material in paid Instagram advertisements, synthetic or AI-generated content, and safeguards for verified public figures whose content may be removed. The government had issued a notice to Meta last month over CSAM-related advertisements on Instagram.

Krishnan had earlier said the government wanted to understand why Meta’s systems had failed in certain instances and how the company planned to improve compliance with Indian laws.

Government sources said discussions also covered algorithmic bias, the functioning of Meta’s recommendation systems and the platform’s role in matters relating to public order and national security.

The latest engagement follows the temporary removal of Modi’s July 23 Facebook post, which had been shared from Instagram. Meta attributed the incident to an error in its AI-powered automated content filters and later restored the post, apologising for the mistake.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology rejected the explanation as inadequate, stating that a technology company of Meta’s scale should be able to prevent such errors.

Following the incident, Meta informed the government that posts from the Prime Minister and other prominent accounts would be subject to additional oversight and multiple levels of review before removal.

Separately, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Wednesday sought an apology from Zuckerberg over the removal of Modi’s speech from Facebook. In a letter to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the committee said legal protections available to Zuckerberg could be reconsidered if an apology was not issued within three days.

Inputs from PTI

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