- 2 days ago
During an episode of News Track hosted by Maria Shakil, the report discusses the confrontation between Meta and the Indian government after a video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly removed from Facebook. Following meetings with the IT Ministry and a parliamentary panel warning over the potential loss of safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the IT Act, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret and apologized for platform errors, deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, and algorithm lapses. Participating in a panel discussion, cyber law advocate Dr. Pawan Duggal, cybersecurity expert Jiten Jain, and TechnoPro founder Sanjay Sahay highlighted that an apology does not exempt tech platforms from legal liabilities. The experts emphasized that Meta operates like a publisher when moderating or amplifying content, arguing that loss of statutory immunity opens doors to civil and criminal litigation. The panel advocated for comprehensive AI laws, strict enforcement mechanisms, and greater platform accountability to prevent foreign big tech companies from interfering in democratic processes and election outcomes.
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00:00Good evening, you're watching NewsTrack with me, Maria Shaquille.
00:02At a time when the government was facing pressure and student protests and public anger
00:09over neat paper leak and exam-related issues,
00:12Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out through an outreach video aimed at reassuring young people.
00:19However, the video was briefly restricted by Meta on Facebook.
00:23That triggered a larger debate over accountability, content moderation
00:28and the responsibilities of social media companies operating in India.
00:33The controversy brought Meta under intense scrutiny.
00:38The company's global team met METI officials today and is scheduled for another round of discussions.
00:46Earlier, Meta representatives appeared before the parliamentary panel,
00:49which sought an apology from Mark Zuckerberg over the brief removal of Prime Minister Modi's video from Facebook.
00:57The panel also warned that failure to address the issue could lead to questions over the company's legal protections,
01:03including its safe harbour status under the IT Act.
01:07But the big development now is that Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has apologised.
01:13According to METI sources, Zuckerberg has expressed regret over issues involving child sexual abuse material content,
01:22deep fakes and operational errors on the platform.
01:25METI also said that Meta acknowledged concerns over paid promotions, boosting of certain categories of content and has admitted its
01:34mistakes.
01:35Meta has expressed regret and assured that corrective measures would be taken.
01:41The larger question now remains, how much responsibility should global technology platforms bear for the content they amplify and the
01:50systems they control?
01:52Before I bring in the guests, here's a report.
01:54Friends?
01:56A video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly removed from Meta-owned Facebook,
02:02triggering a fresh confrontation between the government and the tech giant.
02:09The issue was raised during a high-level meeting between the IT Ministry and Meta's global leadership on Wednesday.
02:16Joel Kaplan, who heads the company's public policy division, was also part of the meet.
02:22The Meta global team later met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav in the national capital.
02:30And right after the two meetings, the Ministry said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised and acknowledged lapses linked to
02:39child sexual abuse material,
02:41deep fake content and errors in platform operations.
02:46The government also said Meta admitted that significant resources had been spent to promote certain categories of content
02:53and expressed regret over the shortcomings.
02:56Not just that, Meta's chief global affairs officer said he has apologised to the IT Minister on behalf of Meta
03:03over the error that resulted in the restriction of PM Modi's post.
03:08Earlier, a parliamentary panel had given Meta a three-day deadline for an apology over the removal of the Prime
03:14Minister's video.
03:15The panel had warned that Facebook's safe harbour protection could come under review,
03:20potentially increasing the company's legal responsibility in India.
03:40The scrutiny also comes amid growing concerns over child safety.
03:45The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has ordered a probe into reports
03:51alleging that Instagram advertisements facilitated access to child sexual abuse material.
03:57The stakes were high for Meta and an apology seemed inevitable.
04:02Why?
04:03Because India is among Meta's largest markets, with an estimated 57 crore WhatsApp users,
04:1048 crore Instagram users and 40 crore Facebook users.
04:14The company's India operations are driven by digital advertising, WhatsApp business ecosystem and Reels monetisation.
04:23Meta has apologised, but the government's message is clear.
04:27Global platforms operating in India must comply with Indian laws.
04:32For big tech, it is a reminder that the world's largest digital market is also becoming one of its toughest
04:39regulatory battlegrounds.
04:41With Shivangi Sharma and Piyush Mishra, Bureau Report, India Today.
04:51So, Meta's global team is in Delhi, and they have been summoned tomorrow as well.
04:56They have been asked to explain as to how Prime Minister's video was temporarily removed.
05:03Is this a one-off technical glitch, or does it expose deeper structural problems
05:08in how global platforms moderate content for India, which is the world's largest democracy and Meta's biggest market?
05:17Joining me on the show tonight, Sanjay Sahai, founder and director, TechnoPro,
05:23former advisor, Maharashtra cyber security and AI expert, Jitin Jain, cyber security expert,
05:29Dr. Pawan Duggal, advocate of the Supreme Court, someone who is seen as an expert in the cyber security.
05:37Dr. Duggal, I'm going to begin with you.
05:39The Parliament Standing Committee has given a diktat that this has to be seen as an apology,
05:46which has to come in an unqualified apology, or face the loss of safe harbour under Section 79.
05:54As a cyber law expert, sir, if that immunity is withdrawn, what does Meta become in the eyes of Indian
06:02law?
06:03Still an intermediary or a full publisher liable for every post?
06:09First and foremost, let me begin by saying that the exclusion of statutory exemption from legal liability
06:16is not dependent on giving apology or not.
06:19It is by way of operation of law.
06:21So, Section 79 IT Act says, please comply with my conditions, comply with the law, exercise due diligence,
06:28do not abet in the commission of any offence, and lo and behold, I will not make you liable for
06:34third-party data.
06:35But the moment you don't fulfil any of these conditions, you become completely liable.
06:40So, first and foremost, a clarification.
06:42The law says the moment you did not comply, you automatically lost your statutory exemption from legal liability.
06:49So, that's not dependent on apology.
06:50Number two, the law is silent on apology.
06:53In fact, apology has no role in the eyes of law.
06:56The moment you lost your exemption from legal liability, you cease to be an intermediary.
07:01That being so, you are like a normal publisher, a normal transmitter, a normal broadcaster,
07:07who's going to be liable for all the third-party data or information that's going to be disseminated,
07:12published, or made available by you on your particular platform.
07:16That means the Pandora's box is going to open up.
07:19New litigation, both in terms of civil liability and also criminal liability, is going to be coming up.
07:25That is, in effect, the legal consequence of losing a statutory exemption from legal liability.
07:31And if India, you know, accepts a so-called apology, and that's nothing, it gives a wrong impression to the
07:39entire world.
07:40It tells the world, wow, you know, we are a wonderful country.
07:43You come, you do whatever you want to do.
07:44You come and say a five-letter word, S-O-R-R-Y, and we are good to go.
07:48It doesn't work like this.
07:50We need to give a strong message to intermediaries.
07:52Guys, your intermediaries' honeymoon under the cyber law, which has been going on for the last one decade, needs to
07:59be over.
07:59We are now serious in terms of implementing and enforcing the law, and you choose not to comply, and you
08:05face the consequences of law.
08:07That is a message that must go loud and clear.
08:09Apology will have no role in this exercise.
08:11And interestingly, what government sources are saying, that safe harbor under IT Act is not applicable.
08:17They have said it clearly that Meta has regretted its mistakes.
08:23And this is, of course, with regards to the deep fake content and errors, and, of course, the child sexual
08:29abuse content.
08:29So, Sanjay Sahai, from a pure systems and architecture perspective, how does a company of Meta's scale and AI capability
08:40allow a verified post of the Prime Minister of India to stay down for nearly five hours?
08:46What does that tell us about their escalation protocols and human-in-the-loop systems?
08:54So, leave the legality part of it and come into purely technological and algorithm part of it.
09:01So, it seems on the face value that they are not in full control of the algorithm.
09:07And why I am saying so?
09:08That once there was a firing in Christchurch, and some of the right radicals, they shot down some 40-odd
09:14people, and Meta's algorithm, your Facebook primarily, they could not catch that.
09:19When the videos were subjected to AI intelligence and variety of other things.
09:24As far as the algorithm goes, it looks very fanciful from the top.
09:28But actually, whether it is able to handle all the granular details and inconsistencies of the granular details, that comes
09:36to question.
09:37And primarily, we relate it to the Prime Minister's post.
09:41If it has happened because of a technical glitch, that will not be the only technical glitch which will be
09:45happening.
09:46And his post also would have gone as a normal post.
09:49And some technical glitch or otherwise, or might be, it is a part of the normal algorithm bias or whatever,
09:56in whichever manner.
09:57So, that is broadly what has happened.
10:00So, these issues crop up not only in India, it crops all over the world.
10:04So, it is just that if the pressure of the government is there, then they will be more, they will
10:11be literally putting their heads on this particular job, and the Indian content will get its due.
10:18And it is not only Prime Minister's post, it is a large amount of other posts which keep appearing on
10:24the Meta, which is objectionable, and which their algorithm is not able to catch.
10:28Primarily, the issue is, all these companies are not audited on the part of the algorithm, on the input control
10:34and output control, besides which, I don't think it is, it becomes extremely difficult to get any control.
10:40And as far as the power is talking about with the legal thing, I think we should not get into
10:46this regret and pardon and sorry and all that.
10:49And Parliamentary Committee, I don't think they are, they are not the right persons to ask for apology.
10:55It has to go through the government, and METI has been following it, and quite rightly so.
11:01Okay, so Jitin, you know, is Meta then, in a way, treating India as just another large market?
11:08And will these moves by the METI ministry actually send that clear message that if India is your biggest market,
11:17because we are also the biggest democracy, an action of this nature is not acceptable?
11:22Because we have seen in the past, Mark Zuckerberg has appeared and has been summoned by other parliaments across the
11:31world as well, and in which he had to appear in person, and explain as to how his big tech
11:39company is operating.
11:43See, Maria, you know, in my opinion, there are two issues here.
11:46The first is to deal with the immediate issue of the influence of social media platforms and takedown of content
11:51of Prime Minister.
11:53You see, you would agree that big tech today controls more attention than the, you know, news broadcasters or news
12:01publishers ever did in our history.
12:03They control more attention.
12:04And with that power should come great accountability and immense responsibility.
12:11And that responsibility and accountability cannot be outsourced to algorithm.
12:15You cannot say that this happened because of algorithm glitch without being transparent about how that algorithm was trained or
12:21what did algorithm flag, what were the reasons.
12:24And why I'm saying this, that I am more, if it is actually algorithm, which, see, algorithms are developed by
12:30humans, trained by humans, you know, curated by humans, and then, you know, they are, they are corrected by humans.
12:37If Meta has never said that whether it was algorithmic glitch or there was any human intervention involved at all
12:42at any stage, I am more curious to know if there was any sort of human intervention involved in restricting
12:49or taking down that particular post,
12:51post, post in restricting or both, both in terms of visibility or both in terms of restoring so that, you
12:56know, this kind of transparency, transparency will bring better accountability and trust.
13:01Second, you see, you will apologize and get away.
13:05You will apologize whenever you like and you don't like in some geographies, you'll apologize in some geographies, you'll comply
13:10with the law in some geographies, you don't give a hold.
13:12So, these social media platforms today cannot have become the new public square, you know, they are the places where
13:19people consume news, people watch content, people see the things happening first.
13:23And that is why these platforms cannot behave like private kingdoms.
13:28And, you see, in this digital age, you know, whoever controls the visibility controls the narrative.
13:34And whoever controls the narrative will have power to influence the democracy and democratic processes.
13:41This has happened today when some protest was going on, Prime Minister was trying to connect with audience.
13:45What if this issue would have happened just 48 hours before the election or 24 hours before the election?
13:50You know, you have then power to change the entire electoral outcome of the world's biggest democratic exercise.
13:56And, see, one thing is that it happened, you restricted the post.
13:59Another thing is that it took more than five and a half hours to restore the post of an elected
14:06Prime Minister of one of the world's biggest democracies and which is your biggest market in the world.
14:10That speaks volumes about their processes.
14:13And why I am telling you, you buy an AC fridge or a TV today, everybody has got a helpline.
14:19Even a Kirana store today has a number where you can call and order something and complain.
14:23These people with billions of dollars of revenue coming from this country, forget about taxes and, you know, this grievance
14:29officer and all.
14:30There is no mobile number you can call if there's an emergency, like somebody wants to commit suicides, as the
14:34right you said about.
14:35In the absence of that helpline is a valid point.
14:39Valid point.
14:40I think, and also I agree with Dr. Dugal that S-O-R-R-Y is not good enough.
14:46Then, Dr. Dugal, the amended IT rules now have stricter obligations on synthetically generated information.
14:54Do these rules give the government real teeth against platforms like Meta?
15:00Or are there still major enforcement gaps when the content is AI generated rather than purely user uploaded?
15:11The unfortunate news is that the IT rules 2026 do not give any teeth to the government.
15:17The biggest problem with these amended rules is that there is no legal consequences should you choose to not comply.
15:24The only consequence will be that you will be stripped of your statutory exemption from legal liability.
15:30But then the last 25 years of the Indian cyber law has shown that not any company has been prosecuted
15:37for loss of statutory exemption from legal liability.
15:41The problem in the IT rules 2026 is that you have asked people to go ahead and label AI content
15:48as generated by AI.
15:49But you have not defined the consequences for non-compliance with this law.
15:53So I think going forward, the answer is very, very clear.
15:57Intermediaries today are all using AI.
16:00That being so, they cease to be intermediaries.
16:02They become publishers, transmitters, broadcasters.
16:06And that being so, they are not amenable to the statutory exemption from legal liability by virtue of the definition
16:12under Section 21W of the IT Act.
16:14And that being so, intermediaries have realized India doesn't have a dedicated law on AI.
16:19So they want to just go and push the envelope as much as they can.
16:22They know ultimately they will have to come back and comply.
16:25But there's no harm taking a chance.
16:27That being so, I think India has a lot of homework to do.
16:30We not only need to come up with a new law on AI, specifically a law on AI accountability.
16:36But more significantly, India needs to come up with the new rules under Section 87, read with Section 79, IT
16:43Act, defining the new age due diligence in today's scenario for intermediaries.
16:48And number three, whatever your existing provisions of law are, please enforce them.
16:52If the biggest meta company can just say sorry and walk away with this kind of a contravention, it's going
17:00to speak very, very poorly of the Indian system.
17:03Further, it's going to actually lead to erosion of the confidence of the people in the intrinsic ability of the
17:09law.
17:10Just because you are a very big corporation, you said sorry, and the law said, oh, I accept you, I'm
17:14sorry, I don't proceed against you.
17:16That argument does not cut ice.
17:19It has to go logically to the normal conclusion.
17:22And further, I think all the intermediaries need to see this as a wake-up call.
17:26They can't say, look, I can keep on trying my luck, keep on pushing the envelope.
17:30And once, if I'm unsuccessful, I'll say sorry, and I'll come and comply.
17:33That argument does not now is available on the table.
17:38And therefore, the quicker, stricter action is taken by Indian authorities and the Indian government in this regard, the better
17:44it's going to be.
17:45India is bang on its target.
17:47After a long time, you've come up with a case where you found an intermediary on a sticky wicket.
17:52Please take it to its logical conclusion and have more sanity in the intermediary ecosystem.
17:57Otherwise, it still continues to be a wild, wild west ecosystem.
18:00As far as intermediaries are concerned, they are a law unto themselves.
18:04They don't provide any effective remedies to users.
18:07People like you and me, my videos or your videos get off.
18:10We have no remedies like this.
18:12Further, the grievance officer never listens.
18:14The grievance redressal mechanism is an utter failure of the IT rule.
18:17And therefore, we need to move forward.
18:19Yes, and you know what we are seeing play out with Meta, Sanjay Sahai, played out with Twitter a few
18:26years ago.
18:26And at that time, remind us, how realistically was enforcement done?
18:38You know, at that time, we had heard a lot about, you know, these methods being taken, these steps being
18:46taken, what happened then?
18:48And have lessons been learned to deal with another big tech company who has similar role?
18:55They are intermediaries.
18:56I'll just clarify, see, what happened with Twitter was more of a show value.
19:01There are two things which is completely missing in our IT social media ecosystem.
19:07One is primarily, is that the rules are never formulated.
19:12If the rules are formulated, they don't have teeth.
19:14And what is even more conspicuous is that the enforcement machinery is totally missing.
19:20So what happened of the Twitter case, we are just unaware of it.
19:24And it never came to the lamlight.
19:27And broadly, what happened that few of the law enforcement officers or some sort of people calling and news making
19:34round, all these things happen.
19:35We are all on the technical, legal side.
19:38Nothing happens.
19:39Now you talk about Metta.
19:41Metta is not doing it for the first time.
19:42They have handled things of this nature.
19:44Any number of times and all across the globe, it is not restricted to India.
19:49This whole of this Brexit business and Cambridge Analytica, the whole thing happened because of Metta.
19:54And Metta had very clearly written in the mail that they don't have that information, which later leaked out and
19:59led to a very big scandal.
20:02Then you talk about the congressional hearing.
20:04There was a congressional hearing of, I think, four of these companies.
20:07And in that congressional hearing, all these people were literally fixed in the dark.
20:11And finally, the U.S. Congress did not do anything about it.
20:14The beauty of the whole thing is when Metta's CEO, he was called for a parliamentary hearing in the United
20:21Kingdom.
20:22He did not even appear.
20:23The crux of the matter is that they have unassailable data power with them and literally control billions and billions
20:31of people.
20:32Their systems are unknown.
20:33Their algorithms are unknown.
20:34And whatever anybody might say, their algorithms are creaky.
20:38And I think at that point, when you say that algorithms are unknown, isn't that an advantage?
20:44Because if algorithms become predictable, then you can fix algorithm.
20:50You know how a platform will react and how the relationship with the content and the platform will be playing
20:56out.
20:57See, I'll tell you, if there are n number of data points, then you can operate.
21:03If you have millions of data points, millions of variables versus millions of air levels,
21:08then it needs a totally different level of, I think, investment and clarity.
21:12And that also on a day-to-day basis to keep improving and iterating upon it so that you are
21:18able to follow the laws in 182 or 192 countries.
21:23They try their level best to do it at the face value.
21:25The GDPR has failed.
21:27All the laws in this world have failed.
21:28Even the California Privacy Act has failed.
21:31So, what the government does, that they take a few of these cases and a few landmark judgments,
21:36and they tell it to the world that everything is done, everything is uncutory.
21:39And these guys at a couple of places even pay a few million dollars, and they are fine with it.
21:45They are running three trillion dollars, four trillion dollar companies.
21:48Till today, there has nothing been done to these people, which has literally taken them to the dock,
21:53and they have felt the heat in any country whatsoever.
21:56Then what should be done?
21:59The laws are there.
22:01The government of India needs to enforce.
22:03Okay.
22:03They have their systems and apparatus here, which is under our territorial jurisdiction.
22:10I'll bring in Jitin now.
22:12I'll bring in Jitin now.
22:13Jitin, do you see a pattern here?
22:15WhatsApp, usernames paused over fraud risks, deep fakes targeting the Prime Minister.
22:22Now this video takedown where Meta's global product decisions keep colliding with India's cybercrime and public order realities.
22:31Well, you know, Mariya, there is only one law in India, that is the law of jungle.
22:35Or incoal attack, these people can get away with anything and everything.
22:38I'll give you three simple examples.
22:40They refused to ban Pakistani handles, which were instigating riots and the violence in the streets of national capital during
22:47the former protest.
22:49Saying that there's a freedom of expression will take time.
22:52Same company bans thousands of accounts, including the account of a sitting U.S. president when there was a slightest
22:57violence on Capitol Hill where not even a single life was lost.
23:00So that's called double standards.
23:02That's called opaque democracy within a particular boardroom.
23:05So let's not talk about free speech with this country.
23:07They are completely for-profit companies.
23:09Second, you know, these companies, the screenshots of Twitter's dashboard were leaked in the market.
23:14You know what it showed?
23:15So they put shadow ban on people so that their contents are not visible.
23:19They amplify content by taking money, which they accepted in a letter today, that you pay money and you can
23:24give it in the form of an ad and amplify the content.
23:29You ban and restrict the content by putting shadow ban and, you know, all those other stuff.
23:33So once you are in the business of amplification and restriction, you are no more a third-party platform, you
23:39are a publisher.
23:39And this whole, you know, safe house protection is gone anyways.
23:43But second, there is no power in Indian law except the only power in Section 69 where you can ban
23:49a particular platform on national security grounds if they don't comply with the government orders and the, you know, public
23:54order guidelines.
23:55There is no, you know, graded enforcement mechanism of graded punishment.
24:00I mean, there is no provision to, let's say, put $1 million penalty on Twitter or Meta.
24:05There is no provision to put one-day ban.
24:07There is no provision to put, let's say, that you will not onboard any new user for one month.
24:12There is nothing in the law.
24:13We are trying to operate by making some rules which are outside the law.
24:17So the best solution right now today is to create a law which is agile, which can put graded punishment
24:23based on the acts you do.
24:24Second, the problem with our society is that we want transparency, we want accountability, we want responsibility, but for a
24:32particular political party.
24:34Look at the Nishikand Dube statement that if you don't apologize, then we will withdraw the safe harm protection and
24:45the floodgates of FIR will come on CSAM, child abuse and all those things.
24:49If you apologize, then these gates will be closed.
24:52What nonsense.
24:53I mean, for CSAM, you will not have the same approach of apology and then punishment.
24:58Will you not have the same approach for the, you know, AI and defects?
25:01But you want apology for a political post.
25:04I think we should maintain the same standards for, you know, the content modification regardless of political ideology, whether it
25:12is prime minister or leader of opposition or this political platforms like cockroach party or whatever or Tahseen Poonamala.
25:18If anybody faces restriction without the power of law or a court order, these platforms must be punished because today
25:26a party A is in power, tomorrow will be party B.
25:28But this power of these platforms to interfere in our elections for our American deep state or anything, what they
25:34did in Nepal or Bangladesh, the day is not far that we will absolutely be in no position to enforce
25:38any sort of law during our elections on this platform.
25:41That's very alarmist.
25:42That is why I say that all political parties must come together and frame a very comprehensive law to deal
25:47with these big tech companies.
25:48Okay, this is very alarmist.
25:50But Dr. Dugal has been highlighting that as well.
25:53So I'll give you 30 seconds, Dr. Dugal.
25:55Please, let's wrap up this conversation.
25:58The only wrap-up message is India, wake up to enforce your law.
26:03Your law automatically now gives you a wonderful handle to take action against one of your biggest intermediaries.
26:09Clarify the law.
26:10So, guys, you cannot be a law unto yourself.
26:12You cannot be arbitrary.
26:13You lose your exemption.
26:15Face your exposure to legal remedies.
26:17And finally, let's ultimately give a message of more due diligence and compliance to all intermediaries.
26:23And finally, please empower the hands of the users.
26:26Please do away with your grievance addressing mechanisms and make effective remedies made available.
26:31You don't need to be a prime minister of the country to get a remedy.
26:35A lay person, a common citizen can get equal remedies under the doors of the intermediaries.
26:40I think that's the right...
26:42I'm sorry to intervene.
26:43Yes, please.
26:43But the safe harbor is gone anyway today.
26:45Today in the Bombay High Court judgment in Nathan Jettigalli case, they have allowed him to sue Meta and other
26:50big tech platforms.
26:51So, safe harbor is gone, at least in this case.
26:53And that is the beginning that now you will see many celebrities and many politicians start doing this platform.
26:58So, criminal damages.
26:59Sanjay sir, you want to do...
27:01You get 30 seconds or should I give you 10 seconds only?
27:03Yes, please.
27:03Yeah, yeah.
27:04Whatever Jitin is saying in Brexit and in US polls 2016, all these things have already been done.
27:11So, I think it is...
27:13And the repeat is happening in so many places.
27:15We are not aware.
27:16Social Media Act and AI Act is a necessity with all rules which should come within three months' time.
27:22And enforcement capability with the Indian police and investigative agencies should have.
27:27Wake up call is the message coming in from this panel.
27:31So, thank you so much, Dr. Dugal, Sanjay Sahai and Jitin Jain for this conversation.
27:36That's all from me on this edition of NewsTrack.
27:39Thanks so much.
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