New Delhi, Aug 5 (HS): Meta has apologised to the Government of India over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post last month, with the company's senior leadership assuring corrective measures during a meeting with Union officials on Wednesday.

Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan conveyed the apology to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during a meeting in New Delhi.

I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting Prime Minister Modi's post, Kaplan said in a statement issued by the company.

The controversy relates to the temporary restriction of a video message posted by Prime Minister Modi on Facebook on July 28, in which he addressed students on examination reforms. The content was later restored after Meta said it had been removed due to a technical error.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had earlier termed Meta's explanation inadequate and sought a detailed clarification from the company.

Apart from the issue relating to the Prime Minister's post, senior government officials also discussed measures adopted by Meta to curb child sexual abuse material, AI-generated deepfakes and other harmful content on its platforms.

Meta executives, including Kaplan, also met Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S. Krishnan to discuss content moderation practices, safeguards for verified accounts and mechanisms to detect and remove unlawful content.

The meeting followed concerns raised by members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology over the temporary restriction of the Prime Minister's post. The committee had also sought stronger safeguards to prevent similar incidents in future.

The government has been engaging with social media platforms on strengthening compliance with Indian laws, improving content moderation systems and addressing the misuse of artificial intelligence for creating misleading content.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar