Such behaviour, the official said on Wednesday, entails greater responsibility for the content allowed on its platforms.
“When you charge to show something on your platform, you are no longer neutral,” the official said, adding that platforms that fail to meet the due-diligence requirements under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act “are no longer an intermediary” and should not receive safe-harbour immunity.
The comments come as Meta faces increased government scrutiny over the handling of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its platforms. Senior officials from I4C and MeitY were also present. The NCPCR has given the company two weeks to submit a report. Srinivas was accompanied by Meta’s Indian public policy team, including Aman Jain and Natasha Jog. Srinivas is known to have deposed under oath, which can subsequently be produced before a court.
The 70-minute hearing was led by NCPCR chairperson Valeti Premchand. This is the second time Srinivas has been summoned by the NCPCR after he skipped the September 9 hearing. The NCPCR had in its notice on July 3 sought an explanation from Meta on why it did not inform the police after allegedly becoming aware of CSAM being promoted on Instagram, citing obligations under the Pocso Act. Section 19 of the Pocso Act requires any person who has knowledge that an offence under the law has been committed, or an apprehension of such an offence, to provide such information to the special juvenile police unit or the local police.
Premchand questioned Srinivas on a range of issues, including Meta’s eligibility for safe-harbour protection under the IT Act, why it had not been reporting CSAM cases to Indian law enforcement agencies until now, and its AI labelling and detection tools, according to people present at the hearing. One person present said Meta was unable to respond to several questions and sought additional time to provide its responses. An official had told HT that the commission wants to hear Meta’s side, examine the arguments in its report that it had submitted previously, and give Srinivas an opportunity to substantiate them with evidence, in keeping with principles of natural justice.
In a recent move, Meta agreed to report CSAM directly to the Cyber Crime portal maintained by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), departing from its earlier policy of reporting it only to the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
