Indian Parliamentary Panel Demands Meta Apology Over PM Modi Video Removal

India's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has demanded an apology from Meta Platforms regarding the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video from Facebook. Nishikant Dubey, the committee's chairman and a BJP Member of Parliament, stated that Meta's safe harbor protection under the IT Act could be reconsidered if an apology is not issued.

Meta acknowledged before the committee that the Prime Minister's video was unavailable for over four hours, attributing the removal to a "technical error." This explanation, however, was reportedly found unsatisfactory by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The committee, which also heard from representatives of Google, X, and other digital platforms, discussed the regulation of social media. Meta was questioned on the reasons for the video's removal, its duration, and the safeguards implemented to prevent similar incidents. The panel also inquired about Meta's content moderation practices, algorithmic bias, and its capability to detect deepfakes.

Concerns were also raised regarding the misuse of social media for financial fraud, the presence of advertisements linked to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and alleged inconsistent content moderation, including the removal of pro-India pages. The Indian government plans to raise these issues with Meta's global leadership.