India Threatens Meta's Legal Immunity Over Content Lapses

The Government of India and a parliamentary panel have threatened to revoke Meta Platforms Inc.'s safe harbor legal immunity under the Information Technology Act following a series of content moderation failures. The dispute intensified after Meta briefly restricted a July 23 Facebook video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing examination paper leaks. While Meta attributed the removal to an AI-powered technical glitch, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology rejected the explanation as inadequate.

Committee Chairperson Nishikant Dubey issued a three-day ultimatum for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally apologize, warning that the company acted as a publisher rather than a neutral intermediary. In meetings with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and IT Secretary S. Krishnan, Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan apologized for the error. Government officials further challenged Meta's status as a neutral intermediary, alleging that the company's algorithmic curation and the use of paid promotions to boost specific content disqualify it from legal immunity.

Beyond the Prime Minister's post, the government is probing Meta for the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and deepfakes in paid Instagram advertisements. Meta admitted to these operational lapses and the promotion of illegal content. Concurrently, the Bombay High Court ordered Meta and Google to remove abusive AI-generated content targeting Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Amidst these tensions, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal alleged his account was restricted in India, though reports later indicated the account was functioning normally.