Zuckerberg should apologise for removal of PM's video from Facebook: Parliamentary panel chief

The head of the department-related standing committee on information technology, Nishikant Dubey, on Monday, August 3, said Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video from Facebook, while several other members demanded legal action after fixing accountability.

However, according to sources cited by PTI, opposition MPs in the panel said that space for dissent in social media is a must and "anti-government" content should not be considered "anti-national".

At the committee meeting, Dubey said the removal of the prime minister's video from Facebook was either a serious failure of the system or there "is a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the prime minister" on the part of Meta and Instagram.

He also said that if this is how Meta deals with the official post of the prime minister, then what can the common people of India expect. He stressed that this "failure cannot be dismissed merely as a technical error".

"They (Meta) themselves admitted that it (video) was taken down for five hours -- missing from 12:30 at night to 5:00 in the morning.

"This is a very serious matter and an apology must come from Zuckerberg's side," Dubey said after an over three-hour meeting of the parliamentary panel during which the MPs questioned the Meta representatives.

And if Zuckerberg does not apologise, then the safe harbour protection they have under Section 79 should be taken back from them, the BJP MP said, referring to the provision of the Information Technology Act under which social media networks and internet service providers are not legally responsible for third-party content on their platforms.

The questioning came against the backdrop of the government's summons to Meta's top executives after Prime Minister Modi's recent Facebook post addressing India's youth and promising stringent action against paper leaks was briefly restricted on the platform.

According to the sources, META officials expressed regret over the incident before the panel and stated they were ready to apologise. However, a BJP MP remarked that this isn't just about offering an apology. Accountability must be fixed and legal action should be taken in this matter, the member asserted.

The parliamentary panel asked Meta to clarify its stand in writing within 10 days.

Dubey said that this was not the first time that Meta has removed a video. "In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg had made objectionable comments on Parliamentary election results. Their mindset is to destabilise the country," he alleged.

He said that social media platforms don't listen to the directives of the Ministries of Home Affairs and IT.

Earlier, addressing the panel, Dubey said temporary removal of the Prime Minister's official Facebook post regarding the NEET examination is a "highly serious" issue and the committee wanted to know "why was the post removed".

"Either there is a serious failure of the system, or there is a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the Prime Minister of our country on the part of Meta and Instagram," he said.

Dubey said Meta should provide the complete audit trail from "report to restoration" of the PM's video and asked why the reasons for account-level enforcement were not disclosed publicly.

At the meeting, members pointed out that while Meta earns huge revenue from India, it does not follow the law of the land, according to sources.

They also questioned Meta officials who appeared before the panel over the issue of algorithmic bias, saying objectionable content related to child and women sexual abuse is freely available on the platform while "genuine" content was removed.

When Facebook has not removed a lot of other objectionable content, who removed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video from the platform, an MP asked Meta representatives.

"Who bears the ultimate responsibility for this?" the sources quoted the panel member as saying.

While the US-headquartered social media giant had attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had found the explanation "inadequate".

The company had said that the content was removed "in error" and was restored on the platform. In a democracy, "if a video of the prime minister is not safe, then accountability needs to be fixed, another panel member was quoted as saying at the meeting on Monday.

The committee members also questioned the capabilities of the algorithms designed to check deepfakes of PM Modi.

The committee headed by BJP member Dubey held the meeting to discuss the subject "Social and Digital platforms and their regulation".

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) S Krishnan and representatives of social and digital media platforms -- Snapchat, Google, X (formerly Twitter), Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) and YouTube -- appeared before the committee.