Govt may withdraw legal protection for Facebook-Instagram:Paid content promotion raises concerns, calls grow for more human oversight

A major legal and technical question has arisen after ongoing meetings between social media company Meta and the Indian government. According to government sources, the main issue is whether Meta’s recommendation system and the promotion of content in exchange for money keep it a simple platform or if it takes on the role of a publisher. If a platform itself decides what content will be shown to which user and promotes content for money, then it can be considered a publisher. In such a case, the company will have to take full responsibility for the content posted on its platform and may lose the legal exemption, i.e., Safe Harbor status, granted under the IT Act. What is ‘Safe Harbor’ protection and why is Meta’s status at risk? Section 79 of the IT Act provides ‘safe harbor’ or legal protection to social media companies. Under this, platforms like Facebook or Instagram are not held directly responsible for controversial or incorrect information posted by a user. However, this exemption is available only as long as the company fully adheres to ‘due diligence’, i.e., legal rules and precautions. Government sources say that if the platform itself is deciding through algorithms what content will be visible to whom, then it falls within the scope of publishing. In case of non-compliance with the rules, direct action can be taken against the company under the IT Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Apology sought from Mark Zuckerberg after PM Modi’s post was removed Recently, after a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was temporarily removed, i.e., restricted, the government had sent a summons to Meta’s Global Affairs Head, Joel Kaplan. Following this, Kaplan’s team met with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and IT Secretary S. Krishnan. According to sources, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the removal of the PM’s post and for deepfakes and other irregularities on the platform. The Parliamentary Standing Committee had also expressed displeasure over the incident and asked Zuckerberg to apologize within 3 days, warning that legal protection would be withdrawn if he failed to do so. Government’s strict stance on deepfake and child abuse content After two days of tough questioning, a technical discussion took place between government and Meta officials on Friday. The government asked Meta why AI-generated harmful content and deepfake videos repeatedly appear on the platform even after being flagged (reported). Also, under IT rules, it is mandatory to ‘label’ AI or synthetic content, but how are unlabeled AI videos still circulating? Meta acknowledged that these are serious issues and assured continuous work to resolve them. Instructions to increase ‘Human Oversight’ for understanding Indian languages During the meeting, the government clearly told Meta not to rely solely on automated or AI systems. Human oversight should be increased for content moderation. The government said that Meta must deploy teams with a better understanding of India’s local nuances, cultures, and various Indian languages, so that objectionable content can be removed on time.