Meta Apology to India Declared Victory as Nishikant Dubey Warns on IT Act Protection

Speaking to reporters, Dubey said, "This is a victory for India's laws, Constitution, and Parliament. It demonstrates the strength of the Prime Minister, who leads 140 crore people, that anyone wishing to do business in India must abide by Indian law."

His remarks came a day after sources said Zuckerberg had apologised to the government over issues relating to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), deepfake content and operational errors on the platform.

Facing a probe over alleged advertisements related to Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) following a media report, Meta admitted that illegal content was promoted and paid promotions were carried out for a specific audience, sources said on Wednesday. The sources added that the company would be called again over the concerns.

"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 45-minute meeting, Meta officials explained the erroneous removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook video.

The meeting followed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology's demand for 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, Dubey had said Meta admitted that the Prime Minister's video remained unavailable for more than four hours and warned that safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act should be withdrawn if Zuckerberg failed to apologise.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 stated that the Prime Minister's Facebook video on action against examination paper leaks was removed due to a technical error and was later restored. The developments have intensified scrutiny of Meta's content moderation practices and its legal obligations under Indian law.