New Delhi: Meta India apologised Wednesday for Meta Platforms chairman Mark Zuckerberg’s remark that the incumbent BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Meta India vice president Shivnath Thukral said in a post on X: “Mark Zuckerberg’s observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in the 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error. India remains an incredibly important country for Meta, and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future.”
He was replying to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s post, which called out Zuckerberg.
Vaishnaw said: “As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM Narendra Modi’s leadership. Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-Covid is factually incorrect.”
Zuckerberg made the comment in a conversation with American podcaster Joe Rogan. “2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon…” he said.
The apology comes a day after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said Meta would have to apologise for spreading disinformation. “My committee will call Meta for this disinformation. Misinformation in any democratic country tarnishes the image of the country. That organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake,” Dubey wrote in a post on X.
On Wednesday, Dubey termed Thukral’s apology a “victory of the common citizens” of India.
He added that the House panel would summon Meta and other social media platforms in connection with other matters in the future. “Narendra Modi has been elected as Prime Minister for the third time. The people have introduced the country’s strongest leadership to the world. We will summon these social platforms on other matters in the future,” the BJP MP said.
Meta, which runs popular platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is yet to issue an official response to the controversy.