Social media giant Meta is set to face a summons from a Parliamentary Standing Committee following remarks made by its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, regarding India's 2024 general election.
Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP and chairman of the House panel on Communication and Information Technology, announced that Meta would be called to account for spreading misinformation about India's democratic processes.
“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.
The controversy stems from Zuckerberg’s statements during a podcast on January 10, where he inaccurately suggested that incumbent governments, including India’s, lost power in the elections held in 2024.
Discussing the global political landscape post-COVID, he remarked, “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.”
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was quick to counter Zuckerberg’s claims, pointing out the inaccuracies. He highlighted that the people of India had, in fact, reaffirmed their trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government during the elections.
“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 stated on X.
He further detailed the government’s achievements during its tenure, saying, “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.”