INSTAGRAM and WhatsApp-owner Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post, as company executives acknowledged failures involving child sexual abuse content and deepfakes and admitted that “a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content”, Government sources said on Wednesday. Sources speaking after the US technology giant’s global team led by its Global Affairs head Joel Kaplan met Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, admitted to lapses in the operation of the company’s platforms. Before meeting Vaishnaw, Kaplan, who served in the administration of George W Bush, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy before joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2011, and his team held a separate discussion with IT Secretary S Krishnan.

 

The meetings followed the Government summoning the company’s global leadership over the brief removal of Modi’s Facebook post last month, which Meta had blamed on a technical glitch. While Meta officials did not offer any comments on the meeting, Government sources said the Meta team apologised and expressed regret over the incident and over other content moderation failures. The sources said, company executives also admitted that “a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content”.

 

They did not elaborate. Government sources said, the Centre told Meta that it could not claim the status of a neutral “intermediary” under India’s Information Technology Act because the company’s algorithms actively curate, recommend and determine which users receive content, rather than merely hosting third-party material. On that basis, the Government argued that Meta would not be entitled to the safe harbour protections available to intermediaries, which shield platforms from liability for user-generated content subject to compliance with the law.