Amid the massive row over Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg's remark on the 2024 general election, an India representative of the social media giant apologised today for the "inadvertent error".
"Mark Zuckerberg's observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in the 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error. India remains an incredibly important country for Meta, and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future," Shivnath Thukral, Meta India's Vice President, said while responding to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's post on X.
The apology comes a day after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliamentary standing committee on Communication and Information Technology, said Meta would be summoned on grounds of spreading misinformation for Zuckerberg's remark.
"Misinformation on a democratic country maligns its image. The organisation would have to apologise to the Parliament and the people here for this mistake," Dubey said in a post on X.
In a podcast on January 10, the 40-year-old Facebook co-founder said the Covid pandemic had led to an erosion of trust in incumbent governments the world over. He incorrectly cited India's example in this connection. "2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon - whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid. It seems to have had this effect that's global," he said.
Soon after, Union Minister Vaishnaw fact-checked the remark and said the people of India had reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in last year's Lok Sabha election.
"As the world's largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM @narendramodi Ji's leadership. Mr. Zuckerberg's claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect," Vaishnaw, who handles portfolios of Railways, Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology in the Modi 3.0 government, said in a post on X.
"From free food for 800 million, 2.2 billion free vaccines, and aid to nations worldwide during COVID, to leading India as the fastest-growing major economy, PM Modi's decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust. Meta, it's disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let's uphold facts and credibility," he added.