Meta should not hide behind algorithm, it must come clean on PM Modi video

For far too long Meta and its boss Mark Zuckerberg have used the word algorithm to avoid taking responsibility for their own platforms like Instagram and Facebook. They are doing it again after Facebook deleted a video of Indian Prime Minister Narender Modi.

In Short

• Meta is saying PM Modi’s video was deleted due to technical glitch
• Tech companies often use glitch or algorithms to avoid accountability
• India must ask Meta to come clean and take accountability

The year is 2016. The date is September 8. And on the front page of the Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, there is an open letter written by the editor and addressed to Mark Zuckerberg. In the letter are the following words:

“I am upset, disappointed — well, in fact even afraid — of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society. I am worried that the world’s most important medium is limiting freedom instead of trying to extend it, and that this occasionally happens in an authoritarian way.”

The reason behind these angry, and utterly justifiable, words is something that Facebook has done. It has deleted a post that contained a Pulitzer-winning photo from the Vietnam War because its algorithms and filters found the famous photo violating nudity guidelines of the website.

Facebook acknowledged its error when the issue raised questions on its ability, or inability, to properly govern its own platforms. It blamed the deletion on a technical error.

The year is 2026. The date is July 28. Facebook has deleted a video, an innocuous message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is blaming it again on a technical error.

10 years apart. Posts deleted. Posts restored. On both occasions, and many more, the culprit — a technical glitch!

This is how Meta rolls, this is how its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has set up the accountability of his platforms. This is how Meta avoids taking responsibility. It must not be allowed to wash its hands off what its algorithms or automated systems do. In 2026, it must not be given the benefit of doubt anymore. Because we have seen it far too often when Meta hides behind its “algorithms.”

The problem is not with algorithms. The problem is with not taking accountability. Tech companies have been traditionally averse to taking responsibility and accountability for what its products and services do. They do not believe in playing by rules. The spirit is best embodied by Mark Zuckerberg himself, who in the early days of Facebook coined a phrase that even now is a defining Silicon Valley feature. “Move fast and break things.” And don’t care about the consequences.

This is something the world must grapple with and fix. At least for India, the mistake Meta “algorithms” have made with the PM video gives the country a chance to bring accountability to tech companies.

Last year I wrote about how tech companies have turned algorithms into black boxes. They have been created and fine-tuned by humans, but tech companies use these algorithms as mystery systems. They claim that algorithms have their own logic and mind. And they tend to hide behind algorithms every time they are made to answer something.

E-commerce platforms sell the same products at different prices to different customers because algorithms. Uber, Ola and Rapido dynamically adjust prices up and down in an opaque manner because algorithms. People get banned on platforms like Instagram out of blue because algorithms. Someone abusing someone enjoys a million views and no action is taken by X or Instagram because algorithms. While someone else asking a question to someone else, even if the question is perfectly civil and genuine, gets banned because algorithms.

The title of that article I wrote last year was: “Dear world, it is 2025 and we live under the tyranny of algorithms.”

Well, now it is 2026. And it seems even someone like PM Modi, a head of state, cannot entirely avoid the tyranny of algorithms.

This must be corrected, this must be fixed, in a way where tech companies can no longer hide behind the non-transparent ways of algorithms and technical glitches.

In his book Homo Deus writer Yuval Noah Harari writes about the opaque nature of algorithms. “Algorithm is arguably the single most important concept in our world,” he writes. “If we want to understand our life and our future, we should make every effort to understand what an algorithm is, and how algorithms are connected with emotions.”

Unfortunately, even as algorithms have taken over our lives we understand them less and less. At least we the mango people. That is because tech companies closely guard their “algorithm” secrets as a way to control the information, and as a way to avoid accountability.

When important people are caught in the blackbox of algorithms, Meta usually ends up saying sorry. But sorry is not the same as accountability. In this case too Meta has also already apologised and has restored the video it had deleted. In the coming days, it is also possible that Mark Zuckerberg too will apologise.

But India must not stop there. India must demand accountability. It must demand transparency. It must demand parity in how Meta algorithms work. And it must demand that algorithms and “technical glitches” cannot be used as the escape route when Meta’s systems move fast and break things.

- Ends