A senior executive from Meta met with Indian officials on Wednesday, offering an apology for a video message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was temporarily removed from Facebook. This incident lasted for five hours, as confirmed by a statement from the tech giant.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global officer, expressed his regret to Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister of Electronics and IT, during their meeting. Kaplan stated, “I apologized to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error that led to the restriction of PM Modi’s post.”
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was contacted for comments regarding the meeting, but a response was not received right away.
The apology comes in the wake of comments from Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, who leads the parliamentary committee on IT. He had previously given Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a three-day deadline to apologize for the removal of Modi’s video, warning that failure to do so could result in the loss of statutory protection for the company.
The situation escalated after PM Modi made a Facebook post on July 28, addressing Indian youth and proposing strict measures against paper leaks. The post was unavailable from 12:30 AM to 5:30 AM, prompting concern from government officials. This event followed the resignation of former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid widespread protests among students.
In addition to meeting with Vaishnaw, Kaplan and his team held another discussion with IT Secretary S. Krishnan. While Meta attributed the removal to a technical error and offered an apology, MeitY deemed this explanation insufficient. The content was later restored on the platform.
Furthermore, the parliamentary committee on IT has called for action against intermediary platforms that host child sexual abuse material and content that degrades women. A government official discussed this request but asked to remain unnamed.
Meta executives did not provide details about the discussions regarding these issues. The company’s content moderation practices faced additional criticism after a BBC investigation highlighted the presence of advertisements related to child sexual abuse material reported to both Meta and Indian authorities.
Krishnan noted the need to understand why some of Meta’s systems were not functioning as intended and what challenges they face.
