After Google, It’s Meta That got Tangled in Controversy with India

A deep dive into what is going on between Meta and The Wire over an Instagram post

After Google was fined US$119 Billion by the Competition Commission of India and accused of implementing certain policies on its Play Store, now it's Meta that has been dragged into a conflict with an Indian news publication that claims that an Instagram post was incorrectly taken down by social-media giant.

Meta's controversy in India is at the center where an Indian publication, The Wire stated that the firm deleted an Instagram post on behalf of a politician in India. In response, Meta charged that the publication had utilized "fabricated" evidence. The Wire decided to stop access to its stories on October 18 and undertake an "internal assessment" of the papers it used as evidence after Meta and numerous online experts discovered anomalies in its reporting. Due to "some anomalies" that surfaced in its research, it later withdrew its findings on October 23. Meta and The Wire are at a war.

The satirical photograph of a guy worshipping Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was mistakenly removed from Instagram, according to a report in the independent Indian news outlet The Wire that appeared on October 6. Even though the post did not feature sexual activity or nudity, the account's owner, @cringearchivist, claims Instagram removed it because it broke its "sexual activity and nudity" regulations.

The message was not detected as a result of an automatic system error, contrary to what many people believed, according to The Wire. Amit Malviya, the head of the information technology cell of India's ruling party purportedly asked Meta to remove the post, according to an internal source at the company, although there are inconsistencies in The Wire's reporting that cast doubt on this claim.

Later, Meta disputed The Wire's assertion. It asserts that The Wire "is the victim of this hoax, not the perpetrator," and that the source's "manufactured proof" has been refuted. It also accuses the publication of disseminating misleading material. The Wire vehemently defended its claims, but after hearing from Meta and internet users, it claimed it will "examine its reporting on Meta." Due to several discrepancies in the documents, it initially offered as proof, the publication ultimately decided to completely recant its claim.