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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

Algorithmic Alibi

Meta’s handling of child sexual-abuse material has exposed the hollowness of the tech behemoth’s claim to be merely a simple intermediary. A company whose algorithms decide what millions of users see and that builds its advertising business around that distribution can hardly retreat into the role of a passive conduit when some of what it helps circulate is abhorrent. The Indian government’s contention that Meta should instead be regarded as a service provider gives it some rightly deserved...

Algorithmic Alibi

Meta’s handling of child sexual-abuse material has exposed the hollowness of the tech behemoth’s claim to be merely a simple intermediary. A company whose algorithms decide what millions of users see and that builds its advertising business around that distribution can hardly retreat into the role of a passive conduit when some of what it helps circulate is abhorrent. The Indian government’s contention that Meta should instead be regarded as a service provider gives it some rightly deserved raps on the knuckle. Meta has now agreed to report child-safety matters directly to the cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). Until now, such cases were reported to the United States-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The new arrangement raises the obvious question of why a company with Meta’s technological resources required regulatory pressure before establishing a direct reporting mechanism with Indian authorities. Meta’s own business model has demolished its fiction of passivity. Facebook and Instagram do not simply sit there waiting for users to post material. Their algorithms rank, recommend, personalise and amplify that material. They determine what attracts attention and, by extension, what generates engagement and advertising revenue. Meta has invested enormous resources in making those systems increasingly effective. It cannot then plead helplessness when the same machinery distributes material that it would rather not acknowledge. Meta’s systems are notoriously difficult for outsiders to scrutinise, while the company possesses vast amounts of information about how they operate. Governments, researchers and users are therefore often expected to identify problems without possessing anything like Meta’s visibility into its own platforms. The company cannot reasonably demand trust while keeping so much of the machinery that determines online visibility behind corporate walls. That said, the government has acknowledged that the courts must ultimately determine whether the company retains safe-harbour protection. But legal immunity and corporate responsibility are not the same thing. The more sophisticated Meta’s technology becomes, the weaker its excuse for failing to anticipate predictable abuses becomes. A company capable of identifying a user’s interests with astonishing precision should not find child-abuse material an unknowable phenomenon. There is a revealing asymmetry in Meta’s posture. Algorithmic power is a selling point when it increases engagement. It becomes someone else’s problem when that power produces consequences that attract regulatory scrutiny. The company wants credit for knowing what people want, while retaining the legal convenience of claiming that it cannot know what appears before them. This is selective accountability. While the courts will decide the precise limits of safe harbour, Meta should not confuse legal uncertainty with moral ambiguity. A company that designs the machinery, controls its settings and profits from its operation cannot forever wash its hands of what that machinery helps to put in front of the public.

US Vice President JD Vance, his family arrive in Delhi

PTI
Apr 21, 2025
2 min read


NEW DELHI: US Vice President J D Vance arrived here on Monday on a four-day visit to India against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between the two strategic partners to address a variety of issues, including tariff and market access.


Vance is accompanied by his Indian-origin wife Usha Chilukuri and their three children Ewan, Vivek, Mirabel and a delegation of senior US government officials.


The US Vice President and the Second Lady were received at the Palam air base by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.


The American leader was also accorded a ceremonial welcome on his arrival.

In the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host a dinner for the Vances after holding wide-ranging talks with the US Vice President.


External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Indian ambassador to US Vinay Mohan Kwatra are expected to be part of the Indian team to be led by PM Modi at the talks.


The focus of the meeting is likely to be on early finalisation of the proposed bilateral trade pact as well as ways to boost overall trajectory of ties between the two countries.


Besides Delhi, Vance and his family will travel to Jaipur and Agra.

Vance's first visit to India comes weeks after US President Donald Trump imposed and then paused a sweeping tariff regime against around 60 countries, including India.


New Delhi and Washington are now holding negotiations to seal a bilateral trade agreement that is expected to address a variety of issues, including tariff and market access.


Vance and his family are scheduled to leave for Jaipur on Monday night.

In Delhi, the US Vice President and his family are staying at the ITC Maurya Sheraton hotel.


On April 22, the Vances will visit a number of historical sites in Jaipur, including the Amer Fort, also known as Amber Fort. The fort is a UNESCO world heritage site.


In the afternoon, the US Vice President is scheduled to address a gathering at the Rajasthan International Centre in Jaipur.


Vance is expected to delved into broader aspects of India-US relations under the Donald Trump administration during his speech that is expected to be attended by diplomats, foreign policy experts, Indian government officials and academia.


The US Vice President and his family will travel to Agra on the morning of April 23, people familiar with the matter said.


In Agra, they will visit the Taj Mahal and Shilpgram which is an open air emporium showcasing various Indian artefacts, they said.


After concluding their visit to Agra, the Vances will return to Jaipur on the second half of April 23.


The US Vice President and his family will depart for the US from Jaipur on April 24, according to the people cited above.

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