Kumar Bahukhandi
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The social media company apologised after a technical error briefly affected the visibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post-Image: Official Post of Meta -AI-generated (Representative)
Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post
New Delhi: Under mounting pressure from the government and law enforcement agencies, the chief executive of social media giant Meta, Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday admitted his mistake and apologised for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfake content, and errors in operating the platform.
India also told Meta that it is not covered under ‘intermediary’ definition as the social media platform selects who receives the content. However, the Meta team admitted that ‘lot of money’ was paid for boosting certain types of content and tendered an apology before the government and regretted their mistakes, according to the sources.
The apology of Meta CEO Zuckerberg comes after the company’s global team, including its global affairs officer Joel Kaplan, met IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, following the government’s recent summons over the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post on Facebook on July 23, 2026.
Earlier in the day, a parliamentary panel also gave the Meta chief a 3-day ultimatum to apologise for the removal of Modi’s video from Facebook, threatening that Meta should withdraw immunity if it was not done, or else a move that may lead to prosecution and registration of an FIR.
In a letter to the secretary, director of the Lok Sabha secretariat A Jyothirmayi also demanded the removal of the PM’s video addressing students and Gen Z regarding examination rows and strict actions against paper leaks from Facebook for five-six hours had been viewed very seriously.
“During the deliberations, the committee demanded an apology from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Chief on this issue. If he fails to tender an unqualified apology within 3 days of receipt of this letter, the protection/immunity given under Section 79(3) of IT Act may be withdrawn and action taken against him as a Publisher,” said Jyothirmayi in his letter.
In the Wednesday August 5’s meeting, the IT ministry and its key officials including IT secretary S Krishnan, maintained that the Meta’s explanation to the government, citing a technical glitch in the automated content filters, was ‘not reasonable’. They had said that if indeed a glitch in the automated system caused the error, then Meta, being a technology company, must surely hasten to improve its own tools.
However, the Meta officials attributed the error to AI-powered automated content filters reviewing shared posts and subsequent videos that had circulated following the original post by the prime minister. Meta had told the government that its automated filters inadvertently ended up briefly removing the original post itself.
Meta has also been under regulatory scrutiny over the issue of CSAM in paid advertisements on Instagram, and the government, last month, slapped a notice on the social media giant over the issue.
In the immediate aftermath of the issue, Meta had informed the IT ministry that posts by the prime minister and select prominent accounts will be subject to additional oversight on the platform, with multiple levels of checks involving senior company officials. Meta wrote to the government outlining the specifics of enhanced and rigorous safeguards it implemented on July 28 for content posted by PM Modi and other prominent accounts. Besides Meta, the parliamentary panel also sought government of India action against Google India head over investors losing more than Rs 48 lakh through fraud apps.
“The committee while discussing Hyderabad cyber police action against the Google India Head as a co-accused along with the cyber fraudsters after the complainants alleged that they lost more than Rs.48 lakhs by investing through fraud Apps, the committee desired that similar action be taken against the Google India by the Government of India,” the letter stated.
