Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has been given three days by the parliamentary committee on communications and information technology to apologize for the brief removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23rd video and take action against those responsible. The panel led by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has claimed the takedown as an attack on democracy.
“If Facebook does not take action against those responsible in this matter, the Safe Harbour Clause will be removed. Mark Zuckerberg will have to apologize. Otherwise, a case may be filed,” it said.
It is worth noting that the removal of the safe harbour clause gives the centre the authority to file FIRs directly against social media platform officials.PM Modi’s post first shared on Instagram and later on Facebook, marked his first direct self video that contained a message to the Gen Z promising stringent measures against paper leaks and the student protests, spearheaded by the satirical Cockroach Janata Party at the same time. The Facebook version of this post was briefly restricted by Meta. However, it restored the post after receiving a major backlash.
Earlier this week, the officials faced tough questions from the government at a meeting with the parliamentary panel. The company apologized for the technical glitch that led to the removal of PM’s video, while the IT ministry maintained that Meta’s explanation was not reasonable. It added that if it was indeed a glitch, then Meta being a technology company, must hasten to improve its tools.
Besides, the Facebook giant has also been facing scrutiny over the issue of child sex abuse material in paid advertisements on Instagram and the garment. Last month, it was, a notice was slapped on Meta over the issue, with the parliamentary panel today warned all social media platforms to comply with the CSAM rules or face a case including Google, YouTube, X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat.