Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that he was “almost sentenced to death in Pakistan” after facing legal action over blasphemous content posted on his social media platform.

Speaking in a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg discussed the challenges social media platforms face due to differing legal frameworks worldwide. He cited Pakistan as an example, stating that criminal proceedings were initiated against him after blasphemous content—specifically a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad—was shared on Facebook.

“There are laws in different countries that we disagree with. For example, there was a time when someone was trying to get me sentenced to death in Pakistan because someone on Facebook had a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad, and someone said that’s blasphemy in our culture’. They sued me and opened criminal proceedings… But I am not planning to go to Pakistan, so I’m not worried about it,” Zuckerberg said.

Mark Zuckerberg: There was someone trying to have me sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy. They opened criminal proceedings against me. I don’t know when, I’m just not planning to go to Pakistan, so I’m not worried about it. pic.twitter.com/er8Fx9Rp93

— PREM. (@TweetsOfPR) February 10, 2025

While acknowledging that the situation was unsettling, Zuckerberg remarked that flying over the region posed a potential risk, saying, “It’s not great if you’re flying over that region, you don’t want your plane to go down above Pakistan.”

He further highlighted broader concerns about government interference in free speech, arguing that some nations seek to impose restrictions on content that would otherwise be considered legitimate expression. “To have those governments exert that kind of power is a lot of force,” he said, calling on the US government to support American tech companies facing such challenges abroad.

Zuckerberg’s remarks come just weeks after Meta announced sweeping changes to its content moderation policies, including the removal of fact-checkers across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The company’s new approach will focus on addressing high-severity violations such as terrorism, child exploitation, and drug-related offences, while promoting a policy of “more speech” by easing certain restrictions on mainstream discussions.

The overhaul has been widely praised by figures such as former US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who have previously criticized Meta’s content policies.

(With inputs from India Today)

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Social media behemoth Meta is set to be summoned by a Parliamentary panel over “incorrect and irresponsible” remarks by its founder Mark Zuckerberg on the 2024 General Elections in India.

The information was shared by Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP and the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology on X. The BJP MP said that the Parliamentary panel under him will soon serve a notice to the Meta for “spreading misinformation” and seek an apology.

Taking note of Zuckerberg’s objectionable remarks, Nishikant Dubey said, “Misinformation in any democratic country tarnishes its image. The organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people for this mistake.” Zuckerberg, in a recent podcast, claimed that most of the incumbent governments across the democracies saw the erosion of public trust during the COVID-19 pandemic and this eventually led to their ouster in the 2024 elections.

Mark Zuckerberg speaking to podcaster Joe Rogan, said, “2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon – whether it was because of inflation or because of the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid. It seems to have had this effect that’s global – not just the US but for many incumbents in other countries,” he said in the podcast.

Zuckerberg’s generalised statement on the 2024 elections invited a quick counter from Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who termed it “factually incorrect”. While fact-checking his statements, the Union Minister said that last year’s elections in India were rather a reaffirmation of people’s trust in PM Modi-led NDA for a record third time.

“PM Modi’s decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust,” he added. He also dropped a piece of advice for the Meta and its chief, urging them to uphold the facts and truth. “Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility,” he wrote.

–IANS

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Facebook India saw its profit surge by 43 per cent in the last fiscal (FY24), riding on digital advertising and support services offered to its parent company Meta in the US.

The company’s India unit saw its net profit reach ₹505 crore last fiscal. Its revenue from operations increase by 9.3 per cent to ₹3,034.8 crore in FY24, up from ₹2,775.7 crore in FY23, as per data from the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Facebook India’s overall expenses grew 2.4 per cent to ₹2,349.6 crore and employee benefit expenses increased to ₹476.1 crore, reflecting a 7.8 per cent increase from FY23. The “other expenses” category remained stable at ₹1435.3 crore.

As per the data, depreciation and amortisation costs dropped by 10.8 per cent to ₹271.3 crore, from ₹304.2 crore in FY23. On the other hand, Facebook India’s parent company reported weaker-than-expected user numbers and warned of a significant acceleration in its infrastructure expenses in 2025.

In its third-quarter earnings report, Meta reported $40.59 billion in revenue. Sales in the third quarter jumped 19 per cent year-on-year while net income grew 35 per cent to $15.7 billion from $11.6 billion a year earlier. The social media giant reported 3.29 billion daily active people for the third quarter — up 5 per cent year-on-year.

Meta also raised capital expenditures guidance for the 2024 fiscal year to between $38 billion and $40 billion, up from $37 billion to $40 billion previously. Additionally, the company said it expects capital expenditures to continue to grow significantly in 2025 due to an acceleration in infrastructure expenses.

“We had a good quarter driven by AI progress across our apps and business,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “We also have strong momentum with Meta AI, Llama adoption, and AI-powered glasses.”

“Our AI investments continue to require serious infrastructure, and I expect to continue investing significantly there, too,” Zuckerberg added.

–IANS

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On 10 October 2022, leftist-Islamist propaganda outlet The Wire had published a story in which it alleged that BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya can get any social media post on Facebook or Instagram taken down because Meta had given him special privileges.

“The company has given Malviya two levels of privileges – he can post as he likes, without the rules governing the platform applying to him, and he can impose his will as he pleases to have posts critical of the BJP, the Union government, or right-wing Hindu politics, deleted.”, The Wire’s story had alleged.

However, this story was categorically refuted by Meta’s head of communications Andy Stone and stated that the story was based on fabricated documents.

Where to even begin with this story?! X-check has nothing to do with the ability to report posts. The posts in question were surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated.

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 11, 2022

Despite Meta calling The Wire out, the propaganda outlet went ahead publishing one more story on 11 October 2022 in an attempt to establish that the documents they have were not fabricated.

To support their story, The Wire had shared a screenshot of a mail supposedly sent by Andy Stone in which he is upset that an internal document has been leaked to them.

The Wire in its follow-up to the earlier story said thus: “In his internal email, Stone demanded an “activity report for the document for last one month” – presumably in order to identify the source of the leak – and also asked why the reporter on the story was not on Meta’s “watchlist”. He said that the reporter and The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan must immediately be added to this “watchlist”, so that “any communication to them from our staff… is directly reported to me”.

However, Guy Rosen, Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer cleared the air stating that The Wire’s report doesn’t hold water and was entire based on forged documents.

In a detailed thread, Guy Rosen stated that the stories are simply incorrect about the cross-check program. He noted that it was built to prevent potential over-enforcement mistakes and that it has nothing to do with the ability to report posts, as alleged in the article.

“In its October 10 story, @thewire_in links to a supposed internal report about the incident in question. It appears to be a fabrication. The URL on that “report” is one that’s not in use. The naming convention is one we don’t use. There is no such report.” he said.

He also stated that the email address of Andy Stone mentioned in the October 11 story, is fake.

“The supposed email address from which it was sent isn’t even Stone’s current email address, and the “to” address isn’t one we use here either. There is no such email.”, Guy Rosen said.

He also noted that there is not “watchlist” of journalists as alleged in The Wire article.

“These accusations are outlandish and riddled with falsities. Let’s hope @thewire_in is the victim not the perpetrator of this hoax.”, he said.

I wanted to set the record straight about two stories run this week by @thewire_in with untrue claims about Meta’s content moderation operations and processes. tl;dr these stories are fabrications. (1/6)

— Guy Rosen (@guyro) October 11, 2022

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The National Commission for Women (NCW) has summoned the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) over a complaint regarding a Facebook group that allegedly targets young married women to have illicit sexual relations and later threatens them of releasing their private pictures in public.

The complaint notes that the Facebook group named WSB Rebels 2.0 group initially encourages women to share their personal problems and intimate details. It says that the Facebook group admin and moderator also compelled women to write detailed articles about their sex lives in the name of ‘tasks’ adding that women were also compelled to share their intimate bedroom pictures and live videos inside the group.

However, much to the shock of the members, all personal details including intimate pictures were shared by the group admin and moderator to another Whatsapp group which has many men including some politicians and ‘Periyarists’, the complaint notes.

The complaint further claims that these men, politicians/’Periyarists’ prey on the women of WSB group by slowly developing relationships with these women, take nude pictures and videos of the women, and later threaten and extort money from them using their vulnerability.

Many women who have fallen prey to the group have been facing constant harassment, the complaint notes.

The complainant also mentions that she had filed a police complaint on 7th August 2020 at the Shastri Nagar Police Station but no action has been taken.

A case was also filed at the Saidapet Metropolitan Magistrate Court on 14th Octobebr 2020. The court ordered the police to register the case and file a report by 27th November 2020, the complaint states.

Apparently, the Inspectorof W19 Adyar All Women Police Station submitted a report before Magistrate stating that on enquiry of the case, it was revealed that many women are being pushed to prostitution by the gang following which the case was transferred to ‘Crime Against Women and Children’ Wing of Police Department, the complaint further states.

“Even after a lapse of 15 months from the date of orders of the Hon’ble Metropolitan Magistrate, the case has not been registered by the Police Department and no action has been taken so far. Since, many politicians who can influence the ruling party are involved in this case, the lives of the affected women are in danger.”, the complaint letter to the NCW says.

Taking cognizance of this complaint, the NCW has issued a notice to Tamil Nadu DGP to appear before it on March 22 along with a detailed Action Taken Report in the matter.

NCW receives a complaint from Tamil Nadu against a Facebook page over alleged indecent representation & outraging the modesty of women. The Commission issues a notice to TN DGP to appear before it on March 22 along with a detailed Action Taken Report in the matter. pic.twitter.com/UN1P6EQq4O

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2022

Earlier this month, The Commune had reported on the massive sex racket named ‘Lulu Group / Women Stress Buster (WSB)’. Read more about it here.

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Meta Platfrom Inc which owns Facebook and Instagram is now allowing its user to spew hate and call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers and it will not block them for violation of its hate speech policy as the social media giant has eased its policy.

According to news agency Reuters that accessed internal emails, Meta Inc. has made temporary changes to its hate speech policy that allows its users to post content that calls for violence, including a call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow calls for violence against Russians https://t.co/dhcObdoDk6 pic.twitter.com/QVokunNzyx

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2022

What is even more disturbing is that Meta will allow posts that call for the assassination of Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko who are the respective heads of state of their country. However, Meta has added a caveat that it is ok to call for violence against Russians as long as it did not contain other targets or discuss methods or locations.

Facebook owner Meta is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Putin or Belarusian President Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to internal emails to its content moderators https://t.co/0joPML3sxw

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2022

The temporary policy changes on calls for violence are not only limited to Russian soldiers but it also applies in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, reports Reuters.

“We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it’s clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion, self-defence, etc.),” Meta highlighted a change in its hate speech policy in its email.

Mark Zuckerberg who is Jewish and owns Meta will also allow praise of the pro-Nazi Azov battalion, which is normally prohibited, in a change first reported by The Intercept.

Meta spokesman Joe Osborne said, “for the time being, making a narrow exception for the praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard,”.

Meta is now defending its decision to allow hate speech because they have observed that in this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers’ is being used as a proxy for the Russian military, however, to give itself a veneer of defense, it will prohibit attacks on Russians, it claimed.

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Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Tamil Nadu spokesperson, SG Suryah, has moved the Delhi High Court (HC) challenging the decisions taken by Meta (Facebook) to restrict access and to demonetise his account, without giving him a chance to be heard for his explanation. The petition was listed before Justice Kameswar Rao, who has called for the hearing of the matter on February 9th.

SG Suryah said that two of his videos were removed from the Meta platform in December 2021, because it allegedly violated community guidelines. After this, the access to his Facebook account was restricted for a month. Following which his account was also demonetised. His plea to the Delhi HC is to reinstate his Facebook account with the same kind of reach he had, back in November 2021.

Suryah claimed that the content of the said YouTube videos was against the Liberations Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), made by a novelist, orator and journalist, Jayakanthan. However, Meta had allegedly marked the two videos as ‘pro LTTE’ and went ahead to restrict access to his Facebook, following which it was also demonetised.

“The Respondent No.2 misinterpreted the contents of aforesaid two posts, which were posted in tamil language and took a wrongful decision by restricting the Petitioner’s reach to the public at large and that too without even affording any opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner” the petition stated.

SG Suryah claimed in his plea, “There is no sanction for this action under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the latest the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 made thereunder.”

In addition, as Suryah was not given an opportunity to be heard before his account was restricted, he said that Meta has violated the Fundamental Rights of Suryah, referring to Articles 14, 19 and 21. In view of the above, he sought directions to Meta/Facebook to reinstate his account and to quash the decision to demonetize it.

(With inputs from Bar and Bench)

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Facebook, the revolutionary and controversial social media giant that has billions of users has changed its corporate name to Meta as part of a major rebranding exercise and the new name was announced by its co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg during the Connect 2021 event.

In an official statement, the company said that Meta will bring “together our apps and technologies under one new company brand”. and that Meta would better “encompass” what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR), reports BBC.

However, the change will not apply to the company’s individual platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, but only to the parent company that owns them. 

Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s plans to build a “metaverse” during a company’s live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference and said that Meta would be an online world where people can game, work, and communicate in a virtual environment, using VR headsets and declared that the existing brand could not “possibly represent” everything that the company is doing.

Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards,” Zuckerberg said.”

To reflect who we are and the future we hope to build, I’m proud to share that our company is now Meta,” he said.

“From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services. As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for,” he added.

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Instant messaging giant WhatsApp owned by Facebook has taken the privacy war to the Indian court saying that user privacy is in its DNA and the company will not share the information related to the “first originator of information” with any government including India.

As per reports filed by IANS on Wednesday (26 May), WhatsApp has filed the case against the Indian government in Delhi High Court, as the deadline to comply with the new IT (intermediary) rules 2021 meant for big social media platforms in India ended on Tuesday (25 May).

WhatsApp said that new rules infringe on users’ privacy and according to the company, from day one, “we built WhatsApp to help you stay in touch with friends, share vital information during natural disasters, reconnect with separated families, or seek a better life”.

“Some of your most personal moments are shared with WhatsApp, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into our app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands,” according to WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has also gone ahead with implementing its controversial user privacy policy from 15 May, stating that “we will maintain this approach until at least the forthcoming PDP (personal data protection) law comes into effect”.

However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) made it very clear that the social media platform must abide by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 by May 25, or face strict action.

The MeitY had announced its new IT draft (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules for social media platforms on February 25 and the new rules state, the social media platforms will have to remove offending content within 36 hours after a government directive or a legal order.

MeitY also mandated that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving/resolving complaints from the users or victims.

Facebook has over 400 million users in India on its user privacy policy,and it has defended its position, saying that it continues to engage with the government to resolve the issue.

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Following an online face-off with the microblogging site Twitter, the Home Ministry has issued a set of guidelines for social media platforms, online news media and Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms.

Tweeting about this, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “All social media platforms have to abide by Indian laws. The new rules, announced today, will further empower social media users by institutionalising redressal mechanism and ensuring resolution of their grievances. I applaud @narendramodi ji and @rsprasad ji. #ResponsibleFreedom”. Another tweet in the thread went on to say, “Modi govt is committed to provide a level playing field for all digital media and OTT platforms. The Code of Ethics and 3 tier self regulation for digital media is welcome. I congratulate @narendramodi ji and @PrakashJavdekar ji for these much needed rules. #ResponsibleFreedom.”

The rules were published in a document, called the “Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code”, which aims to achieve tighter control over social media platforms. The document specifies the guidelines for the publication of content and specifically mentions the fact that Big Tech firms should make sure that a post is taken down within 36 hours of a government order against it. It also went on to say that they should also assist in investigations or other cyber security-related incidents within 72 hours of a request.

Modi govt is committed to provide a level playing field for all digital media and OTT platforms.

The Code of Ethics and 3 tier self regulation for digital media is welcome. I congratulate @narendramodi ji and @PrakashJavdekar ji for these much needed rules. #ResponsibleFreedom

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 25, 2021

All social media platforms have to abide by Indian laws. The new rules, announced today, will further empower social media users by institutionalising redressal mechanism and ensuring resolution of their grievances. I applaud @narendramodi ji and @rsprasad ji. #ResponsibleFreedom

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 25, 2021

Addressing a press conference on Digital Media Ethics Code alongwith my cabinet colleague @rsprasad Ji. #ResponsibleFreedom #OTTGuidelines https://t.co/gijzaecJA8

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) February 25, 2021

Thanking PM @NarendraModi ji and Minister @RSPrasad ji for empowering social media users with a robust mechanism for grievance redressal and timely resolution.

Social media platforms must follow the Indian Constitution & laws. #ResponsibleFreedom

https://t.co/nNVeicPftr pic.twitter.com/fmvCPJBiIb

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 25, 2021

The new rules framed by the Centre lay down a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism.

There have been widespread concerns about digital content, especially on OTT platforms. Recently, Amazon Prime’s web series ‘Tandav’ had created a furore after it portrayed Hindu deities in a degrading way, insulting the sentiments and sensitivities of the Hindu community.

“There is a Censor Board for films, but OTT platforms have no such mechanism. For OTT platforms, we have decided on a 3-tier system,” Union Minister for  Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said.

Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe the ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ of the Press Council of India and the ‘Programme Code’ under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act. Setting out general principles, the rules say that publishers should take into consideration that the content does not “affect the sovereignty and integrity of India” or “jeopardises the security of the State”, among other things.

Facebook faced a global backlash from publishers and politicians last week after blocking news feeds in Australia in a dispute with the government, when new Australian legislation mandated that Facebook share its revenue with local news outlets for using their content.

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