Govt to Meta: No Safe Harbour If Law Violated, Says Sources
The government has conveyed to Meta that safe-harbour protections under Indian law will not be available if the company violates legal provisions, according to officials familiar with recent discussions between the tech giant and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
“Seen some action on CSAM issue; govt clear no safe harbour if law violated; message has gone home,” a government source said, as reported by news agency PTI. The discussions centred on Meta’s handling of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), other harmful online content, and the company’s compliance with India’s legal framework.
Officials cited by ANI said Meta has become more cautious about CSAM-related content and is taking steps to filter out unlawful material. The government also emphasised that it has acted strictly within the powers available under the existing legal and statutory framework.
The government maintained that its objective is not to censor social media platforms or suppress legitimate speech, but to ensure that platforms operating in India follow Indian laws and do not create circumstances that could adversely affect the country’s social fabric.
Meta’s content moderation systems were a key focus, with the government stressing the need for greater sensitivity to India’s linguistic and cultural diversity. Sources said moderation teams cannot rely solely on global standards and must develop a better understanding of Indian languages and cultural contexts when making decisions about content.
Deepfakes and other forms of synthetically generated content were also raised during the discussions. The government argued that AI-generated material should be clearly labelled so users can distinguish between synthetic and authentic content. This, officials said, is a matter of the “user’s right to know” whether the content they are viewing is genuine or AI-generated.
Earlier discussions had also examined Meta’s recommendation and virality systems, including concerns over why flagged synthetic content could continue to resurface or be amplified. The government had sought details of the company’s safeguards and content moderation mechanisms, while stressing that material identified as unlawful or harmful should not continue to be recommended.
Separately, the government is examining the issue of WhatsApp usernames from an industry-wide perspective, rather than treating it as an issue specific to Meta. Sources said the Centre would continue to monitor the matter across messaging platforms.
The broader discussions have covered Meta’s compliance with Indian law, its content policies, moderation systems, and safeguards. The government has previously questioned the company’s eligibility for safe-harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, which provides intermediaries protection from liability for third-party content subject to specified conditions.
Government sources noted that similar debates over platform regulation have emerged in Western liberal democracies as well, underlining that the challenge is not unique to India. At the same time, officials stressed that cultural and social contexts differ between countries and that reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech remain constitutionally applicable in India.
The latest discussions follow several rounds of engagement between Meta’s global team and the ministry over CSAM, deepfakes, bots, synthetic content, and recommendation algorithms.
