MeitY Summons Meta, Instagram Executives Over Removal Of PM Modi's Student Protest Outreach Video

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has summoned Meta's global head of public policy after the company took down a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed to the country's youth. The government is treating the removal as a serious compliance lapse under the IT Rules governing how platforms handle government and user content.

The summons has gone out to Meta's global public policy chief, with the company's Instagram head also learnt to be under the ministry's scanner over the same episode. At the heart of the dispute is a video the Prime Minister posted on July 23, during the student protests organised at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, promising strict action against paper leaks and appealing directly to young Indians preparing for competitive exams. The post disappeared from Facebook soon after, prompting the ministry to seek an explanation.

Meta has since quietly restored the content and issued a short statement acknowledging the lapse. "The content was removed in error and has since been restored," a company spokesperson said, without detailing what triggered the takedown or how such an error occurred on a post from the country's top elected office.

The IT Rules require significant social media intermediaries to act with due diligence, maintain grievance redressal mechanisms, and avoid arbitrary removal of lawful content. An unexplained takedown of a prime ministerial post, even if later called an error, is likely to be read as a lapse serious enough to warrant a direct explanation from Meta's senior-most policy leadership rather than its India office.

Summoning a global head of public policy, rather than a domestic compliance officer, points to the government wanting answers at a level where platform-wide decisions are actually made. 

Whether the removal was purely a technical or moderation error, as Meta maintains, or something the ministry believes warrants closer examination will likely become clearer once the summoned executives respond. For now, the episode has reopened questions about the accountability of large platforms under India's IT Rules, and how much latitude they have when handling content posted by the government that regulates them.

The ministry has not yet indicated whether it plans to formally record statements from the executives or simply seek a written explanation.

Inputs from PTI