Kathmandu— On Monday, the Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology questioned Meta regarding the temporary removal of a social media post by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The committee expressed concerns over transparency, accountability, and reliability of digital platforms following the incident involving PM Modi's NEET examination post.

PM Modi’s Post Removal

Chairperson Nishikant Dubey raised serious questions about how Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official Facebook post on the NEET examination could have been taken down and remained unavailable for over four hours. The committee sought a detailed explanation from Meta, including an audit trail of the incident and measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Cyber Fraud and AI Misuse

Dubey also highlighted growing concerns about cyber fraud, AI-generated misinformation, and deepfakes. He stressed the need for stronger accountability mechanisms for digital intermediaries and asked Meta to clarify whether its rules on bullying, harassment, threats, and coordinated abuse are applied fairly.

The committee questioned why fraud-related incidents are not reflected as a separate category in compliance reports and discussed the need for uniform reporting standards across intermediaries.

Child Safety Measures

Child safety was another key topic of discussion. The committee sought explanations over reports linking advertisements to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and asked platforms to detail safeguards being implemented to detect and prevent such content.

Representatives from Meta, X, and YouTube responded to questions raised by members during the meeting.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also summoned Meta over the brief taking down of PM Modi's post. Secretary S Krishnan stated that the company’s explanation of a 'technical error' does not appear entirely acceptable.

(With inputs from ANI)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.