Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the Indian government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post was temporarily removed, following mounting pressure from both the Centre and a parliamentary panel. The apology came after Meta’s global representatives, including Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss the incident.
During the meeting, Meta reportedly acknowledged lapses involving child sexual abuse material, deepfake content, and the promotion of certain categories of content through paid amplification. Government officials also informed the company that its role in controlling content distribution could affect its intermediary status under the Information Technology Act.
The development followed a parliamentary panel’s three-day ultimatum asking Zuckerberg to issue an unconditional apology. The panel warned that failure to do so could result in the withdrawal of legal protections available to intermediaries and possible legal proceedings. The committee took serious note of the removal of the Prime Minister’s video addressing students and Gen Z on examination-related issues, which remained unavailable for several hours.
The IT Ministry rejected Meta’s explanation that the removal was caused by an AI-driven automated filtering error, stating that such a justification was unacceptable for a technology company of its scale. Meta said the post had been mistakenly removed by automated moderation systems and was restored shortly afterwards.
In response, the company has introduced additional safeguards, including multiple levels of manual review by senior officials for posts from the Prime Minister and other high-profile accounts.
Separately, the parliamentary panel also sought action against Google India over alleged investor losses linked to fraudulent mobile applications, citing an ongoing cybercrime investigation.
