On Meta, Abhinandan Sekhri asked whether the platform has the bandwidth to process takedown requests in India at that scale, or whether “it’s actually a phase where it’s the Wild West”.
Independent tech journalist Abhishek Baxi agreed with that characterisation and explained that Meta’s automated moderation system – a response to takedown requests in India doubling year on year – was behind the technical glitch that pulled down PM Modi’s video from Facebook. Meta’s global affairs chief had to fly down to apologise to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directly.
Manisha Pande pointed to a recent instance where an interview with a CJP protester, conducted by Priyanshi Sharma, a journalist with Peak TV, was repeatedly taken down from Instagram and reinstated without explanation, alongside three of Newslaundry’s own videos that are restricted in India.
“I don’t think these platforms are going to fight the freedom of speech fight for us,” she said. “They want to continue doing business here.”
On the ruling establishment’s inability to figure out Instagram like they did WhatsApp, Shardool added that it was “a sad fact that a government governing 1.4 billion people doesn't understand Instagram” and that “it takes one conversation with creators to understand how the platform works, but instead every viral trend is seen as a conspiracy.”
Abhinandan went on to argue that US tech giants “don't have our interest in mind at all”, and would readily compromise on user protections if it meant preserving profit and market access, leaving Indians caught “between two [powers] who basically don't have your interest in mind.”
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Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar .
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