"Modi Video Blockage Sparked Crisis" MeitY has ordered American social media giant to overhaul its core algorithms.

NEW DELHI — In a major showdown over digital sovereignty, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has ordered American social media giant Meta to overhaul its core recommendation algorithms.

The Indian government has demanded a detailed, time-bound compliance roadmap to eradicate deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and state-targeted propaganda from its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

The ultimatum follows high-stakes meetings in New Delhi between MeitY officials and Meta's global technical team. The confrontation escalated after the tech giant admitted to "gaps and shortcomings" within its automated AI moderation systems.

Modi Video Blockage Sparked Crisis

The regulatory clampdown intensified after Meta's AI systems mistakenly blocked a video address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The post—focused on strict government actions against exam paper leaks—was hidden for five hours before being restored.

Meta executives, including Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, offered an official apology to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. However, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT warned that a simple apology is insufficient, threatening to pull the company’s legal "safe harbour" intermediary protection under Section 79 of the IT Act if systemic biases continue.

[ Algorithmic Failure ] --> PM Modi Video Suppressed for 5 Hours
[ Government Response ] --> MeitY Threatens Revocation of Safe Harbour Protection
[ Legal Outcome      ] --> Meta Forced to Shift from US Legal Standards to Indian Law

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Strict Directives: 3-Hour Takedowns and Coordination

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reportedly confronted the delegation, stating that Big Tech platforms operating in India "cannot run on US laws" and must fully comply with Indian constitutional standards.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has instituted several immediate mandates:

1. Three-Hour Deletion Window: Under newly amended IT rules, Meta must completely remove flagged AI-generated deepfakes or illegal content within three hours of receiving an authorized notice.
2. Integration with Quick Response Teams (QRTs): Meta must align its engineering framework with government QRTs across various state departments to rapidly trace and block morphed images.
3. Data Localisation: The company must move swiftly to satisfy local data hosting requirements, ensuring Indian citizen data remains within national borders.
4. Combating Paid Harmful Ads: Regulators grilled Meta over Instagram algorithms that inadvertently monetized and boosted Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) through paid promotions.

Meta Shifts High-Profile Policy

In response to the intense diplomatic pressure, Meta announced an immediate shift in its content moderation protocols for India. Moving forward, any moderation or enforcement action involving high-profile or prominent Indian public accounts will require manual review and sign-off by senior human officials before automated systems can restrict them.

The Indian government has warned social media companies, including Meta, that their 'safe harbour' protection under Section 79 of the IT Act will be revoked if AI-generated deepfakes and illegal content are not completely removed within three hours of notification. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT explicitly directed platforms to take absolute legal responsibility for harmful user-generated content and immediately overhaul their internal recommendation algorithms. 

Technical consultations between MeitY and Meta's engineering teams are scheduled to continue into next week to monitor the implementation of the algorithm changes.