This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by the independent tech journalist Abhishek Baxi. 

The discussion began with the recent controversy between Meta and the Central government, triggered by the brief takedown of PM Modi’s video on Instagram and Meta’s wider clampdown on social media content.

Speaking on the issue, Abhishek said, “It's quite a Wild West. There is a censorship apparatus that has been set up. Given the number of takedown requests the Indian government and its agencies send, Meta has had to automate moderation. In most democracies, takedowns are manual because there’s a clear legal process. In India, takedown requests have been doubling every year. The numbers are so high that manual intervention is simply not tenable anymore, and that’s exactly why these automated moderation errors happen.” 

Adding to Baxi’s point, Manisha said, “We’ve seen interviews disappear, we’ve seen our own posts get restricted, and there is never any explanation. I don’t think these platforms are going to fight the freedom of speech battle for us. They see India as a huge market and they want to continue doing business here.” 

Speaking on the government’s stance on the whole row, Shardool remarked, “It’s a sad fact that a government governing 1.4 billion people doesn’t understand Instagram. It takes one conversation with creators to understand how the platform works, but instead every viral trend is seen as a conspiracy.” 

The discussion then moved to the recent violence reported during the annual Kanwar Yatra. Looking at the big picture, Abhinandan asked, “Is the state accommodating religion, or is it pandering to religion?”

All this and more.