Meta receives record 17K complaints via Indian grievance mechanism

New Delhi: Meta received a record 16,995 complaints through the Indian grievance mechanism in the month of May, led by reports on inappropriate or abusive content (7,289 complaints), the social network has announced.

There were 6,787 complaints regarding bullying or harassment, 699 about fake profiles and 550 reports about account hacking, said the company, which has to publish the monthly compliance under the new IT Rules 2021.

“We responded to 100 per cent of these 16,995 reports. Of these incoming reports, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 2,325 cases,” said Meta.

These tools included pre-established channels to report content for specific violations, self-remediation flows where they can download their data, avenues to address account hacked issues etc.

Of the other 14,670 reports where specialised review was needed, Meta said it reviewed content as per its policies, and took action on 2,299 reports in total.

“The remaining 12,371 reports were reviewed but may not have been actioned,” said the company.

Between April 1-30, Meta had received 8,470 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism. Overall in the month of May, Meta removed more than 30 million pieces of content across Facebook and Instagram in India, as it faces security over user data privacy.

“We use a combination of Artificial Intelligence, reports from our community and review by our teams to identify and review content against our policies,” according to Meta.

All the social media giants have been directed to produce monthly compliance reports under the new IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.