BREAKING GLOBAL : India Files Criminal FIR Against Meta Over Viral Deepfake of PM Modi

In a move that has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and world capitals, Indian authorities have formally opened a criminal investigation that names the Head of Meta in India as an accused party alongside multiple Instagram accounts.

Background

On 29 July 2026, Cyber Crimes Police Station, Hyderabad, registered FIR under Sections 66-C and 67 of the Information Technology Act and Sections 353(2) and 336(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The complaint alleges that Instagram was flooded with digitally manipulated and apparently AI-generated videos and images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi depicted in highly obscene and demeaning scenarios.

The posts were accompanied by streams of vulgar, abusive and derogatory comments that the complainant says amplified the offence, encouraged further circulation, and risked misleading the public, outraging decency, and disturbing public order.

Key takeaways

“Head of Meta In India”, Arun Srinivas was named as accused in the FIR.

By naming Meta’s India leadership as an accused, Indian cyber police have placed the platform itself under criminal scrutiny for allegedly allowing the continued hosting and circulation of the material.

The case is already being watched closely in New Delhi, Washington and Brussels as a potential test of how far national authorities are prepared to go against global tech platforms when deepfakes target sitting heads of government.

Impact

India’s SGI (Synthetically Generated Information) framework, introduced via the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026 (effective 20 February 2026), specifically targets deepfakes and AI-manipulated content like the obscene, digitally altered videos of the Prime Minister that may have triggered the Hyderabad FIR.

Under the rules, platforms such as Instagram (a Significant Social Media Intermediary) must:

• prevent the hosting or circulation of prohibited SGI, including non-consensual intimate imagery, obscenity, and content that falsely depicts real persons in a misleading or demeaning manner,
• require users to declare whether uploads are synthetic,
• verify those declarations with technical tools,
• ensure clear labelling of any permissible SGI,
• and remove unlawful material within as little as 2–3 hours of receiving actual knowledge or official notice, failing which the intermediary itself risks loss of safe-harbour protection and legal liability.

Response

The investigation is ongoing.

Meta has not yet issued a public statement on the FIR.