Govt secures Meta apology after PM video removal row
The apology came after lawmakers warned the company risked losing safe harbour protections if such lapses continued unchecked
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the Government of India for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), deepfake content, and other issues on the company’s platforms, Government sources said. The apology followed a meeting between Meta’s top leaders and senior Indian officials, including Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union IT secretary S Krishnan, on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology gave Zuckerberg three days to apologise for briefly removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23 video from Facebook and to take action against those responsible. The panel, led by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, described the removal as an attack on democracy and said it targeted the representative of 1.4 billion Indians. The panel further warned Meta that it could lose its safe harbor protections under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, which shields platforms from being held responsible for content posted by users, for non-compliance.
On Wednesday, a Meta team led by Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan met with senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). They first spoke with Secretary S Krishnan for 45 minutes and explained that automated systems had mistakenly restricted the video. The team then met with Union minister Vaishnaw. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes.
Government sources said the discussion included the temporary restriction of the PM’s post, CSAM on Meta platforms, the spread of deepfake content and how content recommendation systems work.
Meta representatives also admitted to spending heavily to promote some content and expressed regret for these errors.
The controversy centres on a video message the PM posted on July 23, 2026. In an address to students, PM Modi spoke about the distress caused by exam paper leaks, especially in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate). He spoke of Government actions and announced plans for tougher laws, fast-track courts and stricter penalties for those involved. The message was posted two days after police action on students who had been protesting at Jantar Mantar since June 6. On July 28, the Facebook version of the post was briefly unavailable to users in India, from 12.30 am to 5.00 am. The video remained accessible outside India and was quickly restored once the problem was found. Meta said the incident was a technical error and apologised for the temporary restriction.
MeitY was not satisfied with Meta’s explanation and called senior Meta officials, including those responsible for global public policy, for further talks. Government sources said that if the removal was a technical failure, a company as large as Meta should have systems to prevent such incidents, especially with important official content.
On August 3, the Parliamentary Standing Committee met to discuss how to regulate social and digital platforms.
Representatives from Meta (including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), Google, YouTube, X and Snapchat attended the meeting, along with senior officials from the MeitY and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Meta representatives said they regretted the incident, called it an algorithmic or operational error, and said they were willing to apologise and take steps to prevent it from happening again.
