Ministry of Information Technologies demanded that Meta change algorithms and present a plan to combat deepfakes

The Indian government has tightened its stance on Meta, demanding that the company present a roadmap for compliance. The goal of this requirement is to limit the spread of misleading propaganda and illegal content across the company's various platforms.

An important meeting took place on Friday between representatives of Meta and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). During this meeting, Meta's technical team presented a presentation. According to sources, the entire discussion focused on Meta's algorithms and its technical systems.

During the meeting, Meta acknowledged significant shortcomings in its current algorithmic systems. Consequently, the government demanded that Meta implement necessary and strict changes to its algorithms.

Previously, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had instructed Meta to identify all issues and concerns and provide a 'corrective action plan' to resolve them.

The government mandated that the company fully comply with the country's 'data localization' rules. Furthermore, Meta is required to create a system that allows government officials to promptly and quickly remove disputed content that they have flagged.

The government is extremely serious about restricting the rapid spread of videos and manipulated content such as deepfakes online. To combat this, Meta has been directed to cooperate closely with various departments of the Indian government, including Quick Response Teams (QRTs), and maintain strong ties with them.

Given the sensitivity of the issue, Meta's global team will temporarily remain in India for further discussions. Additional meetings between Meta representatives and the team led by the IT Secretary are expected in the coming days.

Both sides agreed that the dialogue will continue uninterrupted until solutions are found for all these technical and security matters.

Meta has introduced Muse Code, a new artificial intelligence agent designed for programming and game creation. This model is based on the recently launched Muse Spark 1.2 and has the capability to execute large-scale coding tasks.

With this launch, the company aims to compete with giants in the generative AI sector, such as Anthropic and OpenAI. On X, Mark Zuckerberg shared results from internal tests, comparing the new agent with various Large Language Models (LLMs) on the market, including Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 (in Sol and Terra versions).

Preliminary results indicate that Muse Code's performance is still at an intermediate level when compared to its direct competitors. A notable feature of Muse Code is its ability to handle extensive projects, which it achieves by dividing tasks among multiple agents.

Two games developed with this new AI were presented on Meta's blog, displaying simplified mechanics and graphics. Muse Code is already available in beta version. Muse Spark 1.2 is specifically aimed at coding activities, ranging from bug fixing to data interpretation, while maintaining the qualities of Muse Spark 1.1 for general AI agents.

Although related, no information was provided regarding the model's improvements in cybersecurity or scientific research. The figures presented by Meta suggest that the AI falls slightly short of current Anthropic models, although it manages to surpass GPT-5.6 in certain situations. In analyses conducted by Terminal Bench 2.1, Muse Spark 1.2 ranks second, with performance close to Claude Opus 5, contrary to what Meta's internal benchmark shows.

Among the points highlighted by Zuckerberg's company are the ability to manage prolonged tasks and maintain context understanding throughout the entire process. Additionally, the AI can map and improve its own training, surpassing Muse Spark 1.1 in this aspect. Focused on programming, the new agent promises good performance in game development, which often requires multiple layers of code and various logical conditions.

In the release of Muse Spark 1.2 on its blog, Meta also demonstrated the AI's potential with three examples, two of which were simple games. The first, named Embervault, features an isometric perspective and a board format where the player controls a robot that must eliminate constantly pursuing enemies; the gameplay demands fluidity, but the website showed freezes during the test. The second game, Avo Lawn, is a 2D tower defense type, where zombies advance slowly towards the player. In this game, the user collects seeds and acquires fruits to strengthen their defenses, lasting five attack waves, presenting a slow pace but with potential to be a good mobile game.

The central government of India has approached Meta with a demand to enhance compliance with Indian laws, tighten content moderation, and provide clarifications regarding the operation of its algorithms, moderation systems, and protective measures.

According to sources, the government needs to ensure that Meta strictly adheres to local legislation, including mechanisms for vetting and balancing content posted on its platforms, and possesses sufficient guarantees to prevent potential violations.

A second meeting between Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, and Joel Kaplan, Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer, took place late Thursday evening. Earlier, on Wednesday, Kaplan also met with the minister, during which he apologized on behalf of the company for the erroneous deletion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video, in which he addressed students protesting the leak of examination materials for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

On Thursday, during a meeting that lasted over an hour, senior government officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology questioned Meta executives about the processes and systems the company uses for different types of content, as well as how the visibility of this content is determined.

A high-ranking government official, who wished to remain unnamed, stated: 'We gave them specific tasks on several issues we have been tracking over the past few days. For example, their delayed inaction in restoring accidentally deleted posts was noted. Similarly, we asked them how child sexual exploitation material spreads on their platforms despite the existence of mechanisms.'

Sources added that although Kaplan will likely leave India soon and may not be able to participate in further meetings with IT ministry officials during this trip, technical, political, and legal teams from India and the US will continue to meet with government representatives over the next three to four days to answer all inquiries.

During the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, Kaplan was accompanied by Neil Potts, Meta's Vice President of Public Policy, Raphael Frankel, Head of Asia-Pacific Policy at the company, Aman Jain, Head of Public Policy in India, and other senior executives.

On Wednesday, before the meeting with Vaishnaw, Kaplan and his team also met with Secretary of the IT Ministry S Krishnan and other senior officials. This early morning meeting lasted about 45 minutes, during which ministry officials questioned Meta executives about aspects such as the presence and distribution of Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEAM), the deletion of Modi's post, the presence and spread of deepfake content across various Meta platforms, and the inaction of the intermediary regarding issues raised by the Grievance Appeal Committee (GAC).

A senior official present at both meetings on Wednesday noted: 'They (Meta) agreed that they had gaps in automated monitoring and CSEAM removal systems and agreed to increase the number of people working on this issue. We provided them with a list of issues to work on and expect a response on the measures taken within the stipulated time.'