Meta apologised for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes and boosting certain content on being paid "a lot of money", government sources said on Wednesday after executives of the US tech giant met Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
While Meta's global affairs head Joel Kaplan, who flew in from the US for meetings with Indian officials, in a written statement said he "apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post", government sources, who refused to be identified, said the apology came from company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Government sources said Meta global officials have been asked to stay back for another round of questioning on Thursday, when IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will meet the company's global executives once again.
The meeting will also include executives from Meta's technical team.
Kaplan, who served in the administration of George W Bush, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, before joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2011, was summoned by the Indian government to explain temporarily removing Modi's July 23 Facebook post, in which he addressed students and promised stringent action against examination paper leaks.
