Meta has been reportedly asked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to change the way its platforms handle deepfakes, manipulated media, propaganda and other illegal content. Reports claim that MeitY has asked the company to submit a roadmap showing how it plans to meet the government’s concerns. Officials also called for faster action on harmful posts, closer coordination with authorised agencies and compliance with India’s data localisation requirements amid growing concerns over content on social media platforms.
According to the report by ANI citing government sources, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wants Meta to improve its ability to detect and remove deepfakes, morphed images and misleading posts. Moreover, the Indian government also wants the company to act faster when authorised agencies send requests to take down content that violates Indian law.
During a meeting on Friday, Meta’s technical team walked MeitY officials through how its current systems identify and handle harmful material. However, the officials were not satisfied and pushed for more focused steps to stop the wider spread of manipulated content, including propaganda and AI-generated media, specifically calling for algorithmic changes rather than just process explanations.
The directive telling Meta to revamp its algorithms and submit a compliance roadmap was reported on Saturday, citing government sources. Meta acknowledged gaps in its existing systems and discussed possible technical measures to deal with deepfakes and other synthetic content. The two sides are expected to hold further discussions, with another meeting likely next week.
Meta has also faced questions after a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was temporarily restricted. The discussions also included questions regarding child sexual abuse material and deepfakes.
Earlier this week, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan apologised to Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on behalf of the company for the error restricting PM Modi’s post. Separately, government sources said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg conveyed his own apology over concerns related to child sexual abuse material, deepfake content and other operational lapses on the platform.
The government has also warned Meta to follow Indian laws when operating in India, not US laws. Moreover, the latest talks follow changes to India’s Information Technology Rules earlier this year that included strict rules on AI-generated and manipulated content, legally termed synthetically generated information, within platforms’ due diligence obligations, including requirements to detect, label and disclose such content.