Meta India head, social media users booked over morphed posts targeting PM

Meta India's head, along with several Facebook and Instagram users, has been booked by the Hyderabad police over allegedly morphed and objectionable content targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report in The Times of India.

Cases were registered following complaints by BJP supporters who alleged that manipulated videos and images of PM Modi were circulating on social media. The complaints relate to content circulated during student protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over the Neet paper leak.

According to the report, the police have invoked relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology (IT) Act, and named operators of identified accounts and Meta’s India head as co-accused.

One of the complainants, Telangana BJP social media core committee member T Saikiran Goud, submitted 20 Facebook and Instagram links to the police, seeking action against Meta for allegedly hosting the content.

Furthermore, the police said they were tracing the operators behind the social media accounts that posted the content. By Thursday evening, all the links cited in the complaints had become inactive.

Meta to meet MeitY officials

The development comes as Meta's senior global executives are expected to visit India within the next fortnight to meet senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and explain the company's content moderation policies.

MeitY secretary S Krishnan said that Meta introduced new protocols on Tuesday for handling the accounts of prominent individuals, a day after the PM’s post was temporarily taken down on Facebook.

Meta explained that the content was taken down because of an error in its automated content moderation systems.