New Delhi: Big tech parent company Meta Tuesday apologised after a video from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook account was taken down and then restored, with the company attributing the removal to an error. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has summoned Meta’s global head of public policy over the incident, and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology will meet to take up the issue on 3 August.
“The content was removed in error and has since been restored,” a Meta spokesperson said. Sources said the company described the takedown as a technical glitch. During the window when the post was unavailable, users in India saw a notice that access had been withheld in the region following a legal request.
The video, posted on 23 July, was of Modi’s address to students during the 36-day agitation led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) 2026 examination.
In it, Modi said action against paper leaks would be announced at a Cabinet meeting and that the government would set up fast-track courts and bring in relevant legislation. The Centre later introduced the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill 2026, which proposes imprisonment of up to 10 years, penalties and fast-track courts. The agitation was called off on 25 July after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned.
According to government sources, MeitY summoned the global heads of Meta and Instagram to explain how the removal occurred. The ministry has not issued a statement.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey, will meet on 3 August to take up ‘Social and Digital Platforms and Their Regulation’. Representatives from MeitY, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Google, Meta, X and Snapchat are scheduled to brief the committee.
In a post on X, Dubey said the committee had summoned Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp), X, Snapchat and Google for the meeting. He asked how the platforms would protect the privacy of women, children, farmers, rural residents, labourers and the public, and how the companies ensure public order for the government.
The meeting also follows a direction from Delhi Police to platforms to remove posts and videos with remarks against the Prime Minister uploaded during the protests at Jantar Mantar and the events linked to the 20 July ‘Sansad Chalo’ march. The police said monitoring teams had issued notices to intermediaries and that several posts had been taken down.
The removal came as Modi’s Instagram following crossed 105 million, up from 101 million over the week. His reel on the paper-leak issue crossed 303 million views within 24 hours of posting and has since drawn about 396 million views, figures that place him among the most-followed political leaders on the platform.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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