India panel warns Meta over Modi video removal

NEW DELHI: An Indian parliamentary panel called on Wednesday for Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg to apologise for the temporary removal of a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India, the world’s most populous country, is Meta’s largest market by users, with hundreds of millions of people using Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Modi’s video, addressing students during youth-led protests July 23, was briefly removed from Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, but was later restored.

Meta has said it was caused by technical error.

But Nishikant Dubey, who heads the parliamentary committee on communications and information technology, said the panel blamed Meta.

“Deleting the prime minister’s video was not the work of an intermediary, but that of a publisher,” Dubey said, a lawmaker in Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Zuckerberg will have to apologise within three days.”

India’s parliamentary standing committees scrutinise government policies and can summon officials and company executives to answer questions.

However, they cannot themselves impose penalties, revoke legal protections or direct prosecutions.

Any action against an online platform would have to be taken by the government or the courts under existing law.

Dubey said that the committee had written to the interior and technology ministries demanding action.

“If he does not apologise, then all the safe harbour protections that have been provided to his social media platforms should end,” Dubey told reporters.

Indian media reported on Wednesday that Meta officials had been summoned to explain the video’s temporary takedown.

There was no immediate response from Meta to questions by AFP.

Modi posted the vertical video, speaking directly to the camera, on July 23 – during the height of protests led  by the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

The demonstrations, which began in New Delhi, were sparked by anger over exam irregularities but grew into a wider movement over jobs, youth opportunities and what critics describe as Modi’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

Modi, a keen user of X, turned to Instagram – issuing his first vertical videos to tap into the youth medium of choice.

In the video, Modi assured students that the government would implement stricter laws and harsher punishments against paper leaks.