Parliamentary Panel Seeks Mark Zuckerberg's Personal Apology Over PM Modi Video Removal

A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has demanded a personal apology from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after the platform briefly removed a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, warning that the company could lose its safe harbour protection under Indian Law if the apology does not come through.

Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP from Godda and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said Meta had itself admitted that the video, which related to exam paper leaks, was missing from the platform for nearly five hours, between 12:30 am and 5:00 am, before being restored last month.

"Meta India removed the Prime Minister's content. This is not the first time Meta India has done this. If you recall, Zuckerberg himself made a statement in January regarding the 2024 elections and later apologised. This shows that his intention is to destabilise the country," Dubey said, according to reports from the committee meeting.

Dubey said the panel had taken a clear position on the matter. "Our committee has said two things and has clearly stated that the apology should come from Zuckerberg. If Zuckerberg does not give it, then the safe harbour protection under Section 79 should be withdrawn from him," he added.

Section 79 of the Information Technology Act shields intermediaries such as social media platforms from legal liability for third-party content hosted on their sites, provided they comply with due diligence requirements under the law. A withdrawal of this protection would expose Meta to direct legal responsibility for user-posted content in India, altering how the company operates in one of its largest markets.

During the committee proceedings, Dubey reiterated that the removal reflected a pattern rather than an isolated lapse. "They don't listen to the directives of the Ministries of Home Affairs and Electronics and Information Technology. I want to say that Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video," he said, adding that Meta's conduct pointed to a deliberate intent to undermine the country.

He drew a direct line to an earlier controversy from January, when Zuckerberg, speaking on a podcast, claimed that most incumbent governments around the world had lost elections in 2024 following the Covid-19 pandemic, a remark that was widely seen as inaccurate given the ruling NDA alliance's return to power in India that year. Following criticism from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, a senior Meta India official had issued a public apology over the "inadvertent error."

Members of the panel also raised concerns during the meeting about the platform's broader content moderation practices, questioning Meta officials on why material related to child sexual abuse and the sexual exploitation of women continued to remain accessible on the platform even as what they described as "genuine" content, including the Prime Minister's video, had been taken down.

Meta is yet to issue a fresh public response addressing the panel's latest demand for a personal apology. The company had previously acted swiftly to apologise through its India public policy team after the election remarks drew government censure, briefly easing tensions between the platform and Parliament.

The Standing Committee is expected to continue engaging with Meta on both the video takedown and related compliance issues in the coming weeks, even as the company has not indicated whether it intends to meet the panel's demand for Zuckerberg's personal apology. 

Background

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.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had 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.

Meta had 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.

Inputs from News18