New Delhi: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will have to apologise for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23 video and take action against those responsible for it within three days or risk losing the Safe Harbour Clause, the Parliamentary Committee of Communications and Information Technology has said.
The panel, led by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, said the deletion of PM Modi’s video – who is the representative of 1.4 billion Indians – is an “attack on democracy”, as reported by NDTV.
“If Facebook does not take action against those responsible in this matter, the Safe Harbour Clause will be removed. Mark Zuckerberg will have to apologize. Otherwise, a case may be filed,” it said.
The removal of the clause would allow the filing of FIRs directly against social media platform officials. The central government will provide the green light, the committee warned.
Dubey said Meta has been “misusing” the “privilege” of Safe Harbour protection.
“We wrote to the Ministry of IT and the Ministry of Home Affairs stating that deleting the Prime Minister’s video was not the responsibility of an intermediary but that of a publisher. Therefore, Mark Zuckerberg must apologize within three days. If he fails to do so, we will revoke the “safe harbour” protection currently provided to social media platforms, a privilege that they have been misusing,” he said.
“If FIRs are filed against the Meta chief by everyone affected by such content, there could be a nationwide flood of FIRs, and those responsible may face legal consequences,” he added.
The video post by PM Modi, which was first shared on Instagram and later on Facebook, marked his first direct message to Gen Z, promising stringent measures against paper leaks amid the student protest spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at the time. The Facebook version of the post was temporarily restricted by Meta.
After receiving a major backlash, Meta quickly restored the post.
Meta officials faced tough questions from the government at a meeting with the Parliamentary panel earlier this week.
While the company apologised for the “technical glitch” that led to the removal of PM’s video, the IT ministry maintained that Meta’s explanation was “not reasonable”. They added that if it was indeed a glitch, then Meta, being a technology company, must surely hasten to improve its own tools.
This is not the first time that Meta has been in trouble with the authorities. The company also been under regulatory scrutiny over the issue of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram.
The government slapped a notice on Meta over the issue last month. On Wednesday, the Parliamentary panel warned all social media platforms to comply with the CSAM rules or face a case.
“This includes Google, YouTube, X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat,” it said.
Dubey, on Tuesday, had called child sexual abuse a “heinous crime”.
“Pornographic content cannot be allowed in India. Child sexual abuse material is a heinous crime. AI-generated fake videos of women or obscene depiction of women are also heinous crimes…This is above political parties, religion, and caste because this country is extremely sensitive when it comes to children and women,” he said.