UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — HC seeks clarity over Meta’s policy on Rights Manager tool
Q1. Meta's image-matching extension of Rights Manager, which lets publishers protect large image catalogues across Facebook and Instagram, was made available to eligible rights holders through which one of the following Meta products?
- A. Meta Business Suite, the unified account-management console for Pages
- B. Creator Studio, the management console for creators and publishers
- C. Ads Manager, the console used to buy and measure paid placements
- D. Brand Rights Protection, the console used by registered trademark owners
Q2. In Meta's intellectual-property protection suite, which one of the following most accurately describes the Commerce & Ads IP Tool?
- A. A mechanism for detecting text and image matches within paid advertisements and shop listings, distinct from the video/audio matching system
- B. A mechanism for fingerprinting uploaded reference video and audio files and matching them against uploads across Facebook and Instagram
- C. A mechanism enabling rights holders to claim the earnings generated by matched Live broadcasts before the broadcast concludes
- D. A mechanism through which sellers verify the authenticity of goods listed by third parties before those listings are published
Q3. With reference to the outcomes recorded in the Delhi High Court proceedings of August 2026 concerning Meta's Rights Manager, consider the following:
1. Meta was directed to place on record the eligibility criteria and policy governing grant of access to the tool, together with the grounds on which applications are rejected.
2. Meta reversed the disputed copyright strikes and restored the content that had been taken down.
3. Meta agreed to reconsider the petitioner's application for access to the tool.
4. Meta was directed to suspend the operation of the tool in India until the disclosure ordered by the Court was made.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- Meta was directed to place on record the eligibility criteria and policy governing grant of access to the tool, together with the grounds on which applications are rejected.
- Meta reversed the disputed copyright strikes and restored the content that had been taken down.
- Meta agreed to reconsider the petitioner's application for access to the tool.
- Meta was directed to suspend the operation of the tool in India until the disclosure ordered by the Court was made.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 4 only
- D. 3 and 4
Q4. Which one of the following was the principal relief granted by the Delhi High Court in the August 2026 hearing of the content creator's suit against Meta?
- A. A direction to Meta to file the eligibility criteria and the reasons for rejecting applications for the tool
- B. An interim injunction restraining Meta from acting on any copyright claim lodged against the plaintiff's account
- C. A direction to Meta to compensate the plaintiff for the advertising revenue lost during the takedown period
- D. A reference of the question of platform liability to a larger Bench of the High Court for authoritative decision
Q5. Consider the following statements comparing the obligations of ordinary intermediaries with those of significant social media intermediaries under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021:
1. Removal of or disabling access to information within 36 hours of a court order or a notification by the appropriate Government is a due-diligence obligation of intermediaries generally, not of significant social media intermediaries alone.
2. The obligation to designate a Grievance Officer applies exclusively to significant social media intermediaries, all other intermediaries being wholly exempt from any grievance redressal requirement.
3. Information and records relating to content that has been removed or access to which has been disabled are required to be retained for 90 days.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Removal of or disabling access to information within 36 hours of a court order or a notification by the appropriate Government is a due-diligence obligation of intermediaries generally, not of significant social media intermediaries alone.
- The obligation to designate a Grievance Officer applies exclusively to significant social media intermediaries, all other intermediaries being wholly exempt from any grievance redressal requirement.
- Information and records relating to content that has been removed or access to which has been disabled are required to be retained for 90 days.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q6. The expression 'safe harbour', as used in Indian law with reference to online platforms, is best understood as which one of the following?
- A. A conditional exemption of the platform from liability for third-party information hosted or made available by it
- B. An unconditional immunity of the platform from liability for all information carried on it, including material it itself publishes
- C. A protection preventing the platform from being compelled to disclose subscriber data to investigating agencies without a warrant
- D. A protection of the platform against civil suits by users whose content it has taken down in good faith on a complaint
Q7. Under Indian copyright law, for how many years after the death of the author does copyright in a literary work ordinarily subsist with the author's heirs?
- A. 25 years
- B. 50 years
- C. 60 years
- D. 70 years
Q8. The Copyright Office in India functions under which one of the following?
- A. The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
- B. The Central Board of Film Certification, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- C. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- D. The National Book Trust, under the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education
Q9. In September 2025, a High Court dismissed X Corp's challenge to the Government's Sahyog portal, holding the portal to have been conceived under the authority of which one of the following provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000?
- A. Section 69A, which empowers the issue of directions for blocking public access to information
- B. Section 79(3)(b), which conditions the intermediary's exemption from liability on removal upon notification
- C. Section 66A, which penalised the sending of offensive messages through a communication service
- D. Section 87(2), which empowers the Central Government to make rules to carry out the purposes of the Act
Q10. Which one of the following best describes the Sahyog portal, recently the subject of litigation by a social media company in India?
- A. A platform automating the issue of notices by government agencies to intermediaries for removal of, or disabling access to, unlawful information
- B. A platform on which aggrieved users lodge complaints against intermediaries when a grievance officer fails to dispose of them within the prescribed period
- C. A platform on which significant social media intermediaries file their periodic compliance reports on complaints received and action taken
- D. A platform on which an inter-departmental committee examines and reviews blocking directions before they are communicated to intermediaries
Q11. Consider the following statements regarding the High Court of Delhi and the judicial arrangements it replaced or shares the system with:
1. It was established in 1966 under the Delhi High Court Act, 1966, and marked its golden jubilee in 2016.
2. On its establishment its jurisdiction extended also to the Union territory of Himachal Pradesh, the Court of the Judicial Commissioner for that territory standing abolished.
3. The sanctioned strength of Judges of the High Courts in the country declined from 1104 in 2014 to 906 in 2022.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- It was established in 1966 under the Delhi High Court Act, 1966, and marked its golden jubilee in 2016.
- On its establishment its jurisdiction extended also to the Union territory of Himachal Pradesh, the Court of the Judicial Commissioner for that territory standing abolished.
- The sanctioned strength of Judges of the High Courts in the country declined from 1104 in 2014 to 906 in 2022.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q12. The processing of proposals for the appointment of Judges of the High Courts, in accordance with the Memorandum of Procedure, is handled by which one of the following?
- A. The Department of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Law and Justice
- B. The Legislative Department in the Ministry of Law and Justice
- C. The Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law and Justice
- D. The Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions