The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has given Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg a three-day ultimatum to apologise and take action against those responsible for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's selfie video from Facebook.
The committee, headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, warned that the social media giant could lose its safe harbour protection if it fails to comply with the panel's demands.
"If Facebook does not take action against those responsible in this matter, the safe harbour clause will be removed. Mark Zuckerberg will have to apologise. Otherwise, a case may be filed," the committee said.
What is safe harbour protection?
Safe harbour protection is a legal provision under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, that shields online intermediaries from being held liable for third-party content hosted on their platforms, provided they comply with certain legal requirements.
For instance, if a user posts defamatory content on Facebook or Instagram, Meta is generally not held responsible solely because the content was hosted on its platform.
Similar legal protections exist in several countries. In the United States, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides social media platforms with protection from many forms of liability arising from user-generated content. In the European Union, intermediary liability rules are governed under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets out obligations and protections for online platforms hosting third-party content.
What is the PM Modi video controversy?
A selfie video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which he addressed young people and promised strict action against paper leaks, was removed from Facebook for several hours on July 23.
Meta later apologised, attributing the incident to a technical glitch. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) found the explanation "inadequate".
Earlier this week, the parliamentary panel summoned senior Meta officials and questioned them over the removal of the prime minister's video.
Dubey described the incident as a serious matter and said Zuckerberg should personally apologise.
"The Prime Minister's video was removed for five hours. They do not listen to the directives of the Ministries of Home Affairs and Electronics and Information Technology. I want to say that Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video," Dubey said.
