Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, issued an official apology to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after the platform briefly restricted a video post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Following the incident, Kaplan and a delegation of senior Meta executives held a 45-minute meeting with IT Secretary S Krishnan and key officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Highlights of the Incident
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The Content Removed: On July 23, during heightened protests led by the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), PM Modi shared a direct-to-camera vertical video. The post was briefly taken down across both Facebook and Instagram before being restored.
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Meta’s Explanation: Meta attributed the removal to a technical glitch and called it an automated “error.” However, MeitY labelled the company’s initial response as “inadequate.”
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High-Level Meeting: In his official statement, Kaplan confirmed the apology to Minister Vaishnaw on behalf of Meta, emphasizing the mistake was unintended.
Political Fallout & Regulatory Pressure
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Parliamentary Scrutiny: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT, heavily criticized the tech giant.
“Deleting the Prime Minister’s video was not the work of an intermediary, but that of a publisher. Zuckerberg will have to apologise within three days.” — Nishikant Dubey
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Legal & Regulatory Boundaries: While parliamentary committees can summon executives and scrutinize actions, they hold no enforcement powers to issue penalties or direct prosecutions. Any formal punitive action must come through government ministries or Indian legal courts.
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Market Context: India remains Meta’s largest market globally, hosting hundreds of millions of users across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
