Meta admits 'serious issues' with CSAM, deepfake content as govt talks continue after Modi video row

Meta on Thursday admitted that it was facing "serious issues" around deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), bots, and synthetic content, and said that it was "working hard" to stop the rise of such content on its platforms.

This comes as Meta's executives were questioned by Indian government officials for the second consecutive day over a number of issues related to the tech giant's operations in India, including its content recommendation algorithms and compliance with local laws.

"We will push them hard, and technical discussions will continue," a PTI report said, citing sources.

"They admitted that their systems are not fully geared up for so much of the content which is illegal ... They admitted that they are not able to control all of it," the sources added in the report.

In that regard, the Meta executives are expected to stay in India for the next 3-4 days, with upcoming discussions expected to take place on WhatsApp, as the tech giant faces potential removal of its safe-harbour protections under the IT Act.

The government is also said to be in talks with executives from X and Telegram, though THE WEEK could not independently verify whether these platforms will feature in the discussions planned for the next few days.

Though India's crackdown on Meta comes immediately after the platform temporarily removed a July 23 Facebook video by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it also comes as part of a larger series of privacy and content moderation concerns about X, Telegram, and Meta applications that have surfaced recently.

Yet, the report added that the government's focus for the time being is not to create a regulator to handle such issues, but to enforce the existing legal framework around tech compliance in India.

This also comes a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly apologised to the government over the rise of CSAM and deepfake content on its platforms, as well as the error with the PM's video.

However, former White House administration member and Meta global affairs chief Joel Kaplan, who flew into India for questioning, claimed that it was he who had "apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post", among other issues, such as boosting certain content after being paid "a lot of money".

With Kaplan's team having met with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday, Meta's technical team is scheduled to meet officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Friday, the reports said.