India warns Meta to curb AI-generated content or face enforcement

Meta has fallen afoul of India, after the platform temporarily removed a video posted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The incident has prompted government calls for Meta to retool its algorithms and provide a roadmap to compliance in addressing the spread of biometric deepfakes, propaganda and other AI-manipulated content across its platforms.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) also wants Meta to strengthen its content moderation systems, act more quickly on takedown requests from authorized government agencies, and generally fall in line with local laws and regulations.

The message was communicated during a recent meeting, convened after a government summons, between high-ranking officials from both parties in New Delhi. Per an article in tech publication The Ministry of Cyber Affairs, the meeting saw Secretary S. Krishnan give Meta “a clear warning” that “compliance cannot be optional.”

“If platforms fail to act on unlawful AI content, bot-driven misinformation and CSAM-related lapses,” the government will “invoke blocking powers, court directions and police action.”

Section 69A of India’s IT Act 2000 authorizes the Central Government to block public access to any online information to protect national sovereignty, security and public order. The rule applies beyond individual pieces of content, meaning entire platforms can be blocked.

Earlier this year, the government amended the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules to “bring synthetically generated information under a specific regulatory framework and place additional due-diligence requirements on online intermediaries.”

India tightens screws on Big Tech

The MeitY flags three areas in which Meta needs to act: AI misinformation at scale, design features that enable crime, and “failure of safe harbour,” related to a newly mandated 3-hour takedown window for content deemed to violate the rules.

“Under the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Amendment Rules, 2026, failure to meet 3-hour takedown timelines risks loss of safe harbour and potential criminal liability.”

The ministry’s crackdown is not a surprise: MeitY has been hitting Facebook with orders all year. So far in 2026, it has summoned Meta over Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material, flagged WhatsApp’s proposed username rollout fraud risk, and launched a compliance review of Meta’s Muse Image AI tool.

The Modi incident, which prompted calls for an apology from Mark Zuckerberg within three days, merely inflamed the situation.

Nor is it just Meta in the crosshairs: Google, OpenAI, Snap and others have been taken to task over bot-driven misinformation and the spread of deepfakes.

In parallel, Meta has also been lobbying India’s government to reject privacy-preserving age assurance requirements at the platform level, suggesting instead that the solution to child online safety in India is to be found in “life skills education, including critical thinking, decision-making, sexuality education, and media literacy.”

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  deepfakes  |  generative AI  |  India  |  Meta  |  social media