MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Am I Missing Something Here Facebook/Google?

Table of Contents

  • How do we get rival AI agents to duke it out in a court of law?
  • Which AI is most believable?

Have you ever received such a message from Facebook?

Your photo is unavailable in India.

Why this happened

We restricted access to this content through an automated system implemented pursuant to legal requirements under India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules.

At first glance the knee jerk reaction is to expel an expletive.

Why is Cricket Banned?

It certainly looks like Facebook is trying to restrict Cricket supporters in India from:

  1. Seeing St George’s Park Cricket Ground with or without covers
  2. Knowing which players played in the SA and Australian teams.

I get the feeling that all these AI Judge, Jury and Executioners are already running our lives.

And yes, I did check https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/03/0b576f2071694b52e4cd6bb1b6dfab1e.pdf for mentions of cricket, covers, comedy, comment, satire, sport, news and only ‘news’ came up with 27 mentions – ZERO for the rest.

Pitting Gemini Against Facebook AI:

Not satisfied with that I turned to Gemini AI and posed the following question:

Please critically examine the Government of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 20211 , here: https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/03/0b576f2071694b52e4cd6bb1b6dfab1e.pdf and tell me where this post on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/reel/1106578912180434 – contravened Indian Law.

Surprise, surprise Google’s Gemini disagrees.

Whom Do YOU Trust?

The sole reason why I believe Gemini over Facebook is based on education:

  1. Google Founders: Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin completed full undergraduate engineering and science degrees before pursuing advanced graduate work at Stanford University. They earned Master of Science (M.S.) degrees in Computer Science and were actively pursuing Ph.D. degrees when their research on web indexing (PageRank) led directly to founding Google in 1998.
  2. Facebook Founder: Mark Zuckerberg excelled in high school (attending the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy) and gained admission to Harvard University. However, he dropped out during his sophomore year (his second year of undergraduate studies) in 2004 to move to Palo Alto and focus full-time on building Facebook. He later received an honorary doctorate from Harvard in 2017.

THIS is What Gemini Said:

Based on a critical examination of the Government of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (including up-to-date amendments through 2026) and the specific content of the Facebook Reel (1106578912180434 titled “More action than a duvet in a House of Ill Repute… #alanstraton #SAvAUS”), this Reel has not contravened Indian law or the IT Rules, 2021.

Nature of the Content: The Facebook Reel is a sports-related or action-oriented video clip featuring the hashtag #SAvAUS (referencing South Africa vs. Australia sports fixtures) and posted by a creator based in South Africa. It contains standard user-generated sports commentary or footage and does not touch upon sensitive or restricted Indian legal categories.

Scope of the IT Rules, 2021 (Rule 3(1)(b)): Under the IT Rules, intermediaries (like Meta/Facebook) must inform users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that falls under specific prohibited categories.

These include content that:

  1. Is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another’s privacy, or racially/ethnically objectionable.
  2. Harms minors in any way.
  3. Infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, or other proprietary rights.
  4. Violates any law for the time being in force.
  5. Threatens the unity, integrity, defense, security, or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order.

The examined Reel contains no elements related to Indian sovereignty, public order, unlawful acts within India, hate speech against Indian communities, or copyright violations concerning Indian entities.

The Bottom Line:

Jurisdiction and Territorial Nexus: The IT Rules, 2021, enacted under the Information Technology Act, 2000, apply to intermediaries operating in India and content targeted at, or having a direct legal nexus with, Indian users or state interests. Because this content originates from a South African creator focusing on international sports (#SAvAUS) with no localized Indian regulatory impact, it falls entirely outside the active enforcement scope of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Images:

Like straws on a camel’s back the mistakes that AI makes gets compounded until the camel’s back breaks. Photo: MyNMB.co.za

Links:

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From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.