Govt to question Meta on CSAM, WhatsApp username issue, account takedowns

Senior executives are likely to be questioned on child sexual abuse material, synthetic content, impersonation risks and safeguards for prominent and verified accounts

The government will likely meet senior global executives from social media conglomerate Meta on Wednesday, and question them on a range of issues such as the intermediary’s handling of Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM), the issues around WhatsApp usernames, and the treatment of prominent as well as verified accounts on the various platforms of the company, the secretary for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) S Krishnan said.

 

He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Voice of India, an independent multimodal AI evaluation platform, developed jointly by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras-backed AI4Bharat and Josh Talks AI.

 

“There are a range of issues. The issue of CSAM was raised with them, so we will want to understand what measures have been taken to tackle that. There are also issues around synthetically generated information, so those will be raised as well. And of course, when it comes to prominent personalities, especially those that have verified accounts, if there is a takedown of content, there have to be safeguards,” Krishnan said.

 

The meeting is also likely to see senior officials from Meity question Meta about the protocols they have in place for these issues, and why they have “not been working the way they are supposed to and what are the challenges,” he said.

 

Earlier this week, the government had sent summons to Meta’s president of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, to appear in person to explain the company’s content moderation policies.

 

Kaplan, who took over the role in January 2025, was sent the summons on Tuesday after Meta’s explanation of why Modi’s post, in which he addressed agitating students about the measures the government was taking against examination paper leaks, was taken down. Meta has since said that the post was taken down due to an error in its automated content policies. The company has also tendered an apology for the unintentional takedown of the post.

 

Meta has been in the government's crosshairs over the last few weeks due to multiple issues.

 

Earlier this year, the government had asked Meta not to roll out the WhatsApp username feature for its users until all concerns around potential misuse, including impersonation, fraud, and online scams, were addressed.

 

Meity Secretary S Krishnan had then cautioned that the username feature offered by WhatsApp and other peer-to-peer messaging platforms posed "serious" risks of impersonation and cybercrime.

 

"We have taken up the issue of usernames because there is a serious possibility of impersonation and the kind of encouragement or facility it provides for committing more cybercrimes. It is a very serious issue,” he had said.

 

A few days after WhatsApp responded to the notice, the Meity again summoned senior executives from Meta after reports of Instagram running advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) surfaced.

 

Both WhatsApp and Meta have sent their replies to the Ministry, which are now being studied and legally vetted by senior government officials.