Meta on Wednesday apologised for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post, while acknowledging failures involving child sexual abuse content and deepfakes. Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, apologised on behalf of the company for the error restricting Modi’s post addressing Gen Z during a meeting with the information technology ministry. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, admitted to lapses in the operation of its platforms, according to sources. Kaplan and his team also held a separate discussion with IT secretary S. Krishnan. The government had summoned the company’s global leadership over the brief removal of Modi’s July 23 Facebook post, which Meta had blamed on a technical glitch. Government sources said the Centre told Meta it could not claim the status of a neutral “intermediary” under India’s Information Technology Act because its algorithms actively curate, recommend and determine which users receive content, rather than merely hosting third-party material. On that basis, the government argued Meta would not be entitled to safe harbour protections. The government also questioned Meta over child sexual abuse material, deepfakes, safeguards for verified and prominent accounts, algorithmic bias and compliance with Indian law. Meta acknowledged that a lot of illegal content was promoted, and paid promotions were carried out for specific audiences, the sources said, adding that the company would be called again.