A Meta India spokesperson has apologized for what has been termed an “inadvertent error,” following the backlash over the comments made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the general elections of 2024.
Meta India’s Vice President for Public Policy Shivnath Thukral explained the Fact Checking response on Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to Zuckerberg’s comments: “Dear Honourable Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mark’s observation regarding the non-re-election of many incumbent parties in the 2024 elections applies to several countries but not India. We very sincerely apologize for this inadvertent error. India remains an incredibly important country for Meta and we look forward to continuing our contribution to its innovative future.”
This comes after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology, had said that Meta could be summoned over misinformation on Zuckerberg’s remarks. “Misinformation about a democratic country dents its image. The organization should apologize before Parliament and the people for this mistake,” Dubey said.
On a podcast on January 10, the 40-year-old Facebook co-founder Zuckerberg mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had eroded governments’ trust globally and made an incorrect reference to India. “2024 was a major election year for the entire world, and the incumbents lost almost everywhere, including in India. This seems to be part of some worldwide phenomenon that’s connected to inflation, maybe some of the economic policies that were pursued during COVID, and government responses,” he said.
To this, Minister Vaishnaw fact-checked Zuckerberg’s statement by pointing out that the Indian electorate had just shown confidence in the NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He further wrote, “As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the elections in 2024 with over 640 million voters. The people reaffirmed their trust in NDA under PM Modi’s leadership. Mr Zuckerberg’s claim that incumbent governments, including India lost the 2024 election is factually incorrect.
Vaishnaw also enumerated various achievements of the Modi government on free food to 800 million people, vaccination of 2.2 billion vaccines, and positioning India as the fastest-growing major economy. An visibly pained Vaishnaw urged Zuckerberg not to allow misinformation and to keep facts and credibility.
