New Delhi [India], August 6 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged Meta not to “bow down” to Prime Minister Modi after claiming that his account had been restricted in India by Meta, alleging that the company had not provided any explanation or responded to his communications regarding the action.
In a post on X, Kejriwal wrote, “Hi @Meta @metaindia Why have you restricted my account? Verbal enquiries at your India office revealed that my account has been restricted in India and is unavailable in India. Why? Noone in your office is giving any reasons. Noone is suggesting how restrictions can be removed. All emails written have elicited no response other than routine acknowledgement. Thats pretty bad service. Don’t bow down to our Prime Minister so much. Else he will allow u to run only his own account in India.”
Kejriwal’s allegation comes amid heightened scrutiny of Meta in India.
Facing a probe over alleged advertisements related to Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) following a media report, Meta has accepted that illegal content was promoted and paid promotions were carried out for a specific audience, sources said on Wednesday. The sources said the company would be called again over the concerns.
The sources also said that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had apologised to the government over Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), deepfake content and operational errors on the platform.
“Mark Zuckerberg sent his apologies for the CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) content, deepfake content and errors in operating the platform. It was made clear to them that they are not covered under the Intermediary definition. They select who receives the content. Safe harbour under IT Act not applicable,” a source said.
On Wednesday, a high-level Meta delegation led by Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan met Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan. During the meeting, which lasted around 45 minutes, Meta officials explained the reasons behind the erroneous takedown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video.
The meeting came after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology demanded an “unqualified apology” from Zuckerberg over the removal of the Prime Minister’s video from Facebook, warning that the platform could lose its legal immunity in India.
Earlier, BJP MP and Parliamentary Standing Committee chairperson Nishikant Dubey said Meta had admitted that the Prime Minister’s video had remained unavailable for over four hours and warned that safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act should be withdrawn if Zuckerberg failed to apologise.
Meta had earlier said that the Prime Minister’s Facebook video on action against examination paper leaks had been removed due to a technical error and was later restored. (ANI)
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