India pushed Meta for faster turnaround time on content takedown orders on social media platforms: Report

The Indian government has asked Mark Zuckerberg's Meta to make efforts to fasten up the process of taking down objectionable content. The government has asked Meta to process complete content takedown orders issued by authorities within one hour of receiving such official communication, Moneycontrol reported on Wednesday.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has been 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 report added citing sources.

This was discussed at a meeting between Meta's President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other senior MeitY (Ministry of electronics and information technology) officials in the last week of November.

Clegg met with at least two other ministers to discuss India's evolving internet policy regulations and Meta's work in the country, the report added. Quoting a source, the report said that: “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.”

Vaishnaw also 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, like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

In July this year, Meta expanded its third-party fact-checking program in India to include NewsMeter, a fact-checker primarily focused on the southern states in the country.

Meanwhile, Meta witnessed three top executives exit this year including its India head, Ajit Mohan, who has now joined Snap Inc as head for APAC region.
 

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