Meta India Head Named in Case Over Modi Videos
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- Hyderabad police registered a case on July 31 against Arun Srinivas, Meta India's managing director since July 2025, over Facebook videos depicting PM Modi in an "abusive manner," according to deputy commissioner of police V. Aravind Babu.
- Meta said it is "in touch with the concerned agencies and are cooperating with them to resolve the matter," while cyber-crimes police prepare to send a formal notice to Meta Platforms about the case.
- The naming of a senior global tech executive personally is rare and reflects India's 2026 content rules, which now require platforms to remove unlawful content flagged by courts or the government within three hours—down from 36—or lose liability protection.
- The videos spread as Modi faced the biggest wave of youth-led protests India has seen in over a decade, sparked by leaked national examination papers that forced education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign.
- India's IT ministry summoned Meta executives this week after Facebook briefly restricted a Modi post addressing the student protests; Meta said the restriction was inadvertent.
- India is Facebook's largest market by users, and the Srinivas case joins others filed by BJP supporters who alleged manipulated videos and images of Modi were circulating on Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram.
Why it matters: Naming Meta India's head personally in a criminal case — paired with India's 2026 rules that cut the content-removal window from 36 hours to three — raises the legal stakes for executives running the social media platform in its single largest user market. The action lands while Modi is already under fire from student protests over leaked exams, giving his government fresh leverage to press Meta on content moderation decisions it has previously shrugged off.
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