Zuckerberg Apologizes to India over Meta Content

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the Indian government for the presence of child sexual abuse material, deepfake content and operational failures on the company's platforms, according to Indian media. The apology was reportedly made during a meeting on Tuesday between Meta representatives and Indian government officials.

In July, the Indian government ordered Meta to remove ads and content promoting child sexual abuse from Instagram and demanded an explanation of how such content had appeared on the platform. At the time, Meta emphasized that it has a zero-tolerance policy toward such content and is strengthening its detection systems.

Last month, India's ministry of information technology summoned company representatives after Facebook briefly and mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Separately, police in Hyderabad have launched an investigation into Arun Srinivas, the head of Meta India, over videos posted on Facebook that allegedly insulted the prime minister.

India tightened regulations for online platforms this year, reducing the deadline for removing illegal content flagged by a court or the government from 36 hours to three hours.

(Reuters, bak)