India summons Meta's global team over CSAM, account restrictions
What's the story
The Indian government has summoned Meta's global team for a meeting on August 5 and 6. The meeting will focus on a range of issues, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and account safeguards. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post was temporarily restricted last month. The government wants to know why such lapses continue despite Meta being a leading tech company globally.
Accountability
IT Secretary's statement on meeting with Meta
IT Secretary S Krishnan said the government wants to know why some things aren't working as they should on Meta's platforms.
He stressed that, as a leading tech company, Meta should be able to fix these problems.
Last month, Meta restricted access to PM Modi's Facebook post where he spoke about NEET-UG 2026 paper leaks and promised stricter action against such incidents.
Apology issued
Government seeks updates on Meta's actions to curb CSAM
Meta later restored the post, calling it a technical error, and apologized for the incident.
However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) found the explanation "inadequate."
The government will also seek updates on steps taken by Meta to curb CSAM after it came under fire for child sexual exploitative and abuse material appearing in paid ads on Instagram.
Safeguards emphasized
Stronger safeguards for verified accounts
Krishnan also stressed the need for stronger safeguards for verified accounts, saying content belonging to prominent personalities shouldn't be taken down without adequate checks.
Nishikant Dubey, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology said if CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't apologize over the incident, Meta should lose the safe harbor protection available to intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.