Meta, the guardian firm of Facebook and Instagram, acted in opposition to over 1 crore content material items associated to little one endangerment in phrases of nudity, bodily abuse and sexual exploitation in 2023.
According to Meta’s India month-to-month experiences below the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the interval from January 2023 to December 2023 noticed motion in opposition to 1,21,80,300 crore such content material items.
The firm mentioned: “We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) and we take action for going against our standards. This metric shows the scale of our enforcement activity. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning.”
From January 1 to December 31, Facebook’s information confirmed {that a} whole of 4,681,300 items of content material associated to ‘Child Endangerment – Nudity and Physical Abuse’ and ‘Child Endangerment – Sexual Exploitation’ confronted motion.
Meanwhile, Instagram noticed the next quantity, with 74,99,000 items of content material dealing with motion throughout the identical interval, together with a good portion pertaining to sexual exploitation, with 4 million situations simply in January final 12 months.
According to Meta: “In July 2018, we updated our methodology to clarify how many discrete pieces of content we’ve taken action on for violating our policies, and we will continue to mature and improve our methodology as part of our commitment to providing the most accurate and meaningful metrics. Overall, our intention is to provide an accurate representation of the total number of content items that we take action on for violating our policies.”
However, it must be famous that not too long ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, joined executives from Twitter, now rebranded as X, and TikTok in showing earlier than the US Senate Judiciary Committee. This look comes amid rising issues amongst US lawmakers and fogeys relating to the impression of social media on the lives of younger folks.
In phrases of India, the central authorities has been clear about the place they stand because the intention is to make sure that the web in India is open, protected and trusted in addition to accountable to all of the Digital Nagriks.
Rule 4(2) of the IT Rules, 2021 requires main social media platforms to help legislation enforcement businesses in figuring out the originator of knowledge linked to numerous delicate issues, together with nationwide safety, overseas relations, public order, and offences like rape, sexually express content material, or little one sexual abuse materials (CSAM).
Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in his parliamentary response acknowledged: (*1*)
“In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, they lose their safe harbour protection under section 79 of the IT Act and shall be liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any law for the time being in force including the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code such as undersections292 and 293of the IPC,” he added.
