New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh): The Indian government shifted to technical discussions with social media giant Meta following two days of intensive questioning regarding platform compliance and content moderation. During the session, Meta representatives detailed specific technical solutions and proposed measures to address the Centre’s growing concerns over deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, bot accounts, and unlabelled synthetically-generated content circulating across its platforms. Government officials instructed the company to implement specific operational safeguards and report back on measurable outcomes, with regular follow-ups scheduled to track progress.
A central focus of the technical talks was the continued virality and reappearance of harmful AI-generated content even after it had been officially flagged by users or monitoring systems. Government representatives raised serious questions about why AI-generated videos lacking mandatory labels remain active on Meta platforms despite Information Technology rules requiring synthetic media to be clearly identified. In response, officials urged Meta to significantly enhance human oversight in content moderation and ensure its teams possess deeper awareness of Indian regional languages and local cultural nuances.
The technical rounds follow high-level meetings where Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw questioned Meta’s global affairs chief Joel Kaplan regarding content recommendation algorithms and compliance with domestic laws. Meta acknowledged operational shortcomings and expressed commitment to deploying solutions to tackle illegal material effectively. Government sources clarified that the ongoing exercise aims not at censorship, but at enforcing compliance with Indian legal frameworks. Further discussions between technical teams are expected to take place in the coming week.
