The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Thursday continued questioning Meta's visiting global team over Instagram's content recommendation algorithms, compliance with Indian laws, and safeguards against harmful content, with the company assuring the government that it is stepping up efforts to tackle deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), bot accounts and synthetic content.
The hour-long meeting between Meta's global team, led by Global Affairs Chief Joel Kaplan, and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw came a day after the government summoned the company over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post.
Government sources said Meta acknowledged that there were "serious issues" and assured the Centre that it would continue taking corrective measures.
"The company admitted there were 'serious issues' and assured it will take continuous action to resolve them," the sources said.
Officials said the government would continue pressing the company to undertake sustained improvements to address its concerns.
During Thursday's discussions, the Centre questioned Meta on whether it is complying with Indian laws, the functioning and fairness of its algorithms, and whether its compliance mechanisms have adequate checks, balances and guardrails to meet constitutional and legal requirements.
Technical aspects of the platform's systems also featured prominently in the discussions, sources said.
The government further sought clarity on whether Meta has put sufficient safeguards in place in line with India's legal and constitutional framework.
"The fundamental question is whether Meta is following India's laws. That has multiple dimensions; there is a technical dimension and a policy dimension. We want to know if their team understands the law," sources said.
Officials stressed that the rule of law and the Constitution are supreme, and that digital platforms cannot operate in India according to the constitutional frameworks of the US or Europe.
On algorithmic fairness, sources said Meta briefed the government on the mechanisms and parameters it has put in place to address the issue.
The discussions are expected to continue for another three to four days, with the next round involving Meta's technical executives and the government's technical team. IT Secretary S Krishnan is expected to lead the upcoming discussions.
"We will push them hard, and technical discussions will continue," a source said.
Government sources also clarified that there is no proposal at present to create a separate regulator for social media platforms, with the focus remaining on enforcing compliance under the existing constitutional and legal framework.
Officials described AI-generated videos and deepfakes as an emerging challenge, warning that increasingly sophisticated synthetic content could erode public trust. They said authorities are continuously monitoring platforms such as Meta, Google and X, and emphasised the need for stronger mechanisms to preserve trust as AI-generated content becomes more convincing.
Overall, Meta was questioned on its algorithms, compliance mechanisms, checks and balances, and guardrails to ensure adherence to Indian laws and constitutional requirements.
This is the second round of questioning of Meta's global team by the government, after the Prime Minister's July 23 Facebook post, addressing students and youth and promising stringent action against examination paper leaks, was restricted for about five hours on the platform, raising issues around intermediary accountability.
Meta's global affairs head Joel Kaplan, who served in the administration of George W Bush -- including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, before joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2011, was summoned by the government to explain why PM's Facebook post was temporarily restricted.
On Wednesday, Kaplan and his team met IT Secretary S Krishnan, and then the IT Minister.
After the executives of the US tech giant met Vaishnaw on Wednesday, government sources said Meta has apologised for the temporary removal of Modi's post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes and boosting certain content on being paid "a lot of money".
While Kaplan, who flew in for meetings with Indian officials, said in a written statement on Wednesday that he had apologised to the minister on behalf of the company for the error restricting PM Modi's post, government sources, who did not wish to be identified, said the apology came from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee, too, sought an apology from Zuckerberg over the removal of Modi's Facebook post, warning in a letter that protection and immunity available could be withdrawn if no apology was forthcoming within three days.
Modi had first posted the selfie video on Instagram. The video was later shared on Facebook, which was restricted by the social media platform.
Meta later restored the post, attributing its removal to an error by AI-powered automated content filters, and apologised.
According to government sources, Vaishnaw had asked Meta point-blank on Wednesday whether the company accepted payments to promote content that could trigger public disorder.
The government read out provisions of Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, making it clear that non-compliance in discharging intermediary obligations jeopardises the company's safe harbour protection (immunity as a platform).
After the meeting, government sources said Meta executives admitted to failures involving child sexual abuse content and deepfakes and admitted that "a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content".
Vaishnaw, it is learnt, also asked Meta if it is doing enough to prevent illegal content on their platform.
"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," government sources said.
Neither Kaplan nor any other Meta official acknowledged the claims or offered any comments on Wednesday.
The government last month served a notice on Meta over alleged child sexual abuse material in paid advertisements on Instagram, and the meetings, this week, have seen the US giant being grilled on issues such as child sexual abuse material, deepfakes, safeguards for verified and prominent accounts, algorithmic bias, and compliance with Indian laws.
(With inputs from PTI)