Exclusive: Govt pushes Meta for 1 hour turnaround time on content takedown orders, says Google better on compliance

(Representative image)

The Indian government has told Meta, which owns social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to make efforts to process and complete content takedown orders issued by authorities within one hour of receiving such official communication, according to sources aware of the development.

The tech giant was also told that the government expects a higher rate of compliance with takedown notices from authorities, and that its Silicon Valley peer Google is doing better on this front, the sources said.

This discussion took place in the last week of November, when Meta's President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, met with Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other senior MeitY (Ministry of electronics and information technology) officials. According to sources, Clegg met with at least two other ministers to discuss India's evolving internet policy regulations and Meta's work in the country.

“Clegg and others were evidently taken by a bit of surprise when Vaishnaw said that Google was doing better than Meta in terms of compliance with takedown requests. They had the view that Meta was in full adherence to the takedown norms under the IT Rules amendments of last year,” said a person aware of the closed-door conversation.

In 2021, the government issued a series of IT Rules amendments requiring social media platforms to remove content as soon as possible — but no later than 36 hours — when such a request is made by a court or an appropriate government agency.

Moneycontrol has sent a list of queries to MeitY, and this article will be updated as soon as they respond.

“We deeply appreciate the opportunity to discuss how Meta can work together with the government to achieve India's Techade goals. Since these were closed-door meetings, we would not be able to share more information,” a Meta spokesperson said in response to our queries.

According to another source close to the developments, Vaishnaw told Meta that it needs more fact-checkers in India in proportion to the country's population and the user base it commands for its social media platforms.

“The minister’s contention was that the number of per capita fact-checkers in India is smaller when compared to the US. And he also made the point that India has many languages which requires a much more sophisticated approach to fact-checking and proactive content takedowns,” said the source.

Earlier this year, Meta said that it had 11 fact-checking partners in India, making it the country with the most third-party fact-checking partners globally across Meta. In addition, the company also expanded its Indian language coverage from 11 to 15 through existing fact-checking partners, including Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Oriya, and Nepali.

“Each time a fact-checker rates a piece of content as false, altered or partly false, we reduce its distribution so that fewer people see it. We notify people who try to share the content – or who previously shared it – that the information was rated by a fact-checker, and we add a warning label that links to the fact-checker’s article with more information about the claim,” it had written in a blog post at the time.

Apart from government and court orders, social media platforms are also required to respond to user complaints about content within 24 hours and to resolve such complaints within 15 days of receipt. In October, the government also issued a new rule allowing it to appoint grievance appellate committees (GACs) to hear appeals against content moderation decisions made by social media and other intermediaries.