Cases Filed Against Meta India Chief Over Morphed Content Targeting Prime Minister
Hyderabad cybercrime police registered cases against Meta India head Arun Srinivas and social media account operators following complaints from BJP supporters over allegedly morphed content targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during NEET paper leak protests.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the day with a series of public engagements, sharing a Sanskrit verse on the value of virtuous conduct and congratulating weightlifter Bindyarani Devi Sorokhaibam for securing a bronze medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. He also welcomed the passage of a parliamentary bill designed to strengthen the national examination framework. These routine updates coincide with reports that a legal case has been filed against the head of Meta India and certain Instagram accounts concerning posts linked to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Hyderabad’s cybercrime police have registered two cases against the India head of Meta, Arun Srinivas, and operators of several Facebook and Instagram accounts over allegedly morphed and objectionable content targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Cockroach Janta Party-led NEET paper leak protests. The First Information Reports were filed on July 29 based on complaints from BJP supporters, including Telangana BJP social media core committee member T Saikiran Goud and businessman S Aravind Reddy, who alleged that manipulated videos and images depicting the Prime Minister in an obscene and derogatory manner were circulated on the platforms (Indian Express).
According to the complaints, the content included AI-generated visuals showing Modi alongside former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and an edited image of US President Donald Trump. Goud submitted 20 links from Facebook and Instagram demanding action against Meta for hosting the material, while Reddy stated the posts had the potential to mislead the public, incite hatred, and disturb public order (Google News India). Police have invoked Sections 66-C and 67 of the Information Technology Act and Sections 353(2) and 336(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, naming Srinivas as a co-accused. By Thursday evening, the cited links had become inaccessible from India, though investigators said they were working to identify the account operators and had issued a notice to Meta regarding the registered cases (Google News India).
The development comes days after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology summoned Meta’s senior executives for a second time to explain a separate incident in which a video posted by Modi addressing the student protests was briefly restricted on Facebook before being restored. Meta attributed the removal to an inadvertent error. Ministry Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday the government had asked the company to send its highest-level representatives to clarify policy and technical issues at both levels (Google News India). A Meta representative reportedly appeared before Hyderabad cybercrime investigators earlier to brief them on the company’s content moderation and compliance mechanisms, days before the FIRs were registered (Google News India).
The legal action unfolds against the backdrop of the CJP agitation, which erupted over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination and led to Pradhan’s resignation. While Delhi police dropped 13 FIRs against CJP protesters in a single day this week, demonstrators in Maharashtra continue to await the withdrawal of cases, creating what observers describe as a two-speed implementation of government assurances (Indian Express). Meta has not issued an official statement on the FIRs.
Indian Express·PIB·Reuters India