The government on Thursday asked Meta leaders to demonstrate in specific terms how their platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — were complying with Indian laws with respect to freedom of expression, privacy, content moderation and trust around digital spaces.”The engagement with Meta was simple. The company was asked to show how it was following Indian laws and what it was doing to honour domestic legislations on the operations and conduct of social media platforms in India,” said a top source.Meta global affairs head Joel Kaplan and Meta’s Asia public policy head Rafael Frankel met Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw for the second consecutive day as the government questioned the US social media giant on three specific issues — the circumstances surrounding the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23 Facebook video on exam reforms; presence of child sexual abuse material in Instagram advertisements and proliferation of deepfakes on Meta spaces.On the PM video, Meta representatives’ response that it was due to an “operational error” was not accepted, with sources saying that company officials had been asked to furnish logs and provide technical details to support their claim.A top source said it was made clear to Meta that the company would need to defer to the Indian Constitution while operating in India. “You cannot run your platform in India and follow the US Constitution,” said the source, adding that reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression would apply as per the Indian Constitution.Expressing concern over deepfakes, official sources said Meta would need to demonstrate that adequate safeguards were in place to curb their proliferation.”We will continue to hold them to account. This is not about the government. This is about the trust between the social media intermediary and Indian citizens. Trust is everything and it has to be sustained and strengthened,” said the official, adding that the current challenges signal the need for “newer structures for the oversight of social media intermediaries in India”.The source did not elaborate on what was meant by newer structures, whether it meant stronger laws or a strong regulator.Meta is facing the scrutiny from the Indian Government for removing PM Modi’s video on exam reforms for five hours; the presence of child sexual abuse material on its platforms; and the growing prevalence of deepfakes.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday apologised for lapses.India has no standalone digital sovereignty lawIndia does not currently have a dedicated national Digital Sovereignty Act. It enforces digital sovereignty through a mix of laws, including the Information Technology Act-2000 and the Digital Data Privacy Law with government leaders describing the question of a standalone digital sovereignty law as complex and wide-ranging. Experts have, however, long argued for a digital sovereignty law defining Indian authority over all digital actors and infrastructure within its jurisdiction, more so in the era of Free Trade Agreements where source code access and cross-border data flows are among subjects for negotiations. A dedicated law, experts say, will create a legal framework to hold global digital giants accountable to Indian law.