The head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has demanded that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally apologise for removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video from Facebook.
Nishikant Dubey, the panel's chairman, also said Meta's safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act should be revoked if Zuckerberg refuses to apologise.
Under Section 79, social media platforms and internet service providers are generally not held legally liable for third-party content hosted on their platforms.
"They (Meta) themselves admitted that the video was taken down for five hours — it was missing from 12:30 am to 5:00 am. This is a very serious matter, and an apology must come from Zuckerberg's side," Dubey said.
During a three-hour meeting, the parliamentary panel questioned Meta representatives over the brief removal of Modi's video, in which the prime minister addressed the youth and promised stringent action against paper leaks. The panel also asked Meta to submit a clarification within 10 days.
"The Prime Minister's video was removed for five hours. They don't listen to the directives of the Ministries of Home Affairs and Electronics and Information Technology. I want to say that Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video," Dubey said.
"In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg made objectionable comments about the parliamentary election results. Their mindset is to destabilise the country," he alleged.
During the meeting, several members reportedly pointed out that while Meta earns substantial revenue from India, it does not comply with the country's laws. They also questioned Meta officials over why objectionable content related to child sexual abuse and the sexual exploitation of women remained available on the platform while "genuine" content was removed.
Earlier, the social media giant had apologised for the removal of Modi's video, saying the incident occurred due to a technical glitch. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) found the explanation "inadequate". Meta said the content had been removed "in error" and was later restored to the platform.
