Why Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police Booked Meta India Head Over Facebook Posts
HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Cyber crime Police have registered a case against Meta India head Arun Srinivas over multiple videos uploaded on Facebook that allegedly depicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an “abusive manner”, a senior police officer said on Friday.
Case registered over alleged objectionable Facebook videos
Police said the case relates to videos circulated on Facebook that allegedly contained abusive content targeting the Prime Minister. Details of the sections invoked and the complainant were not immediately available.
The development comes as Modi faces widespread youth-led protests across India over the alleged leak of national examination papers. The protests, described as the largest youth mobilisation in more than a decade, have already led to the resignation of the Union education minister.
Social media rules tightened earlier this year
The case follows stricter intermediary regulations introduced in February. Under the revised rules, social media platforms must remove unlawful content flagged by a court or the government within three hours, instead of the earlier 36-hour window, or risk losing legal protection available to intermediaries.
Akash Karmakar, a technology law partner at Panag & Babu, said holding an individual executive personally liable would generally require proof of “an active role and knowledge” of the alleged violation.
Meta has faced repeated scrutiny in India
Meta has repeatedly faced scrutiny from the Indian government over content hosted on Facebook and Instagram. The company has also been criticised by civil society groups and researchers for allegedly doing too little to curb hate speech and misinformation on its platforms.
