Meta's Indian Dilemma: Algorithms, Audits, And Safe Harbour

As Meta enters the second week of talks with the government, the tussle is increasingly centred on a set of questions ranging from how much human intervention should be built into content moderation, and whether reviewers need to understand Indian languages, polity and local context, to how deepfakes should be labelled, how quickly unlawful content must be taken down and whether Meta's recommendation systems could affect its intermediary status, officials familiar with the matter said.While legal experts differ on the scope of the government's powers and Meta's obligations, they broadly agree that the dispute turns on how far intermediary protections extend when platforms actively recommend and amplify content. They question whether automated recommendations can make a platform a publisher, how far the government can mandate human review and algorithmic oversight under existing rules, and whether faster takedown obligations can be reconciled with free speech and due process.