The Indian government has asked Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to apologise after a video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi was removed from Facebook and Instagram.
The video showed Modi speaking to students during youth-led protests on July 23. It was briefly taken down from Meta’s platforms before it was later restored.
A parliamentary committee led by lawmaker Nishikant Dubey described the removal of the video as an attack on democracy. The committee said it was unacceptable for a video of the leader of a country with more than 1.4 billion people to be removed.
The committee demanded that Meta identify those responsible for the incident and that Zuckerberg apologise within three days.
It warned that if the company fails to do so, India could withdraw Meta’s ‘safe harbour’ protection.
This legal protection shields social media companies from being held directly responsible for content posted by users.
Dubey said the committee had already contacted India’s Ministry of Information Technology and Ministry of Home Affairs.
He argued that by removing the Prime Minister’s video, Meta acted like a publisher instead of a neutral platform. According to him, losing its safe harbour protection could expose Meta and its executives to legal action across India.
Meta later restored the video and apologised, saying the removal happened because of a technical glitch.
However, India’s Information Technology Ministry rejected the explanation, saying it was not good enough.
The ministry said Meta, as one of the world’s biggest technology companies, must improve its automated systems to prevent such mistakes from happening again.