New Delhi– Indian government officials are expected to meet senior Meta executives on Aug. 5 to seek explanations about the company’s handling of child sexual abuse material, proposed WhatsApp usernames and content moderation involving verified and prominent accounts.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S. Krishnan said the meeting would address several issues that have recently raised concerns within the government.
Krishnan spoke on the sidelines of the launch of Voice of India, an independent multimodal artificial intelligence evaluation platform developed by AI4Bharat and Josh Talks AI.
One of the main issues will be Meta’s efforts to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, across its platforms.
“The issue of CSAM was raised with them, so we will want to understand what measures have been taken to tackle that,” Krishnan said.
Officials are also expected to raise concerns about synthetically generated content and safeguards governing the removal of posts from verified users and prominent public figures.
“Adequate checks should be in place whenever content from verified users is taken down,” Krishnan said.
The government is likely to seek details about Meta’s internal procedures, why some existing safeguards may not be working effectively and what challenges the company faces in enforcing its policies.
The meeting follows the government’s decision to summon Meta President of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan to appear in person and explain the company’s content moderation practices.
The summons came after a social media post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing protesting students and government efforts to combat examination paper leaks was removed.
Meta later said the post was taken down because of an error in its automated enforcement system and apologized for the removal.
The company has faced increased government scrutiny in recent weeks over several issues.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked WhatsApp to delay the rollout of its username feature until concerns about impersonation, online fraud and cybercrime were addressed. (Source: IANS)
