Parliamentary panel to summon Meta over Zuckerberg's remark on 2024 Lok Sabha polls

Mark Zuckerberg

A day after Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed disappointment over Mark Zuckerberg's incorrect statement about the Indian government losing the 2024 parliamentary elections, BJP leader Nishikant Dubey, who is heading committee on Communications and Information Technology on Tuesday said that the parliamentary panel will summon tech-giant Meta for recent comment by its CEO on grounds of spreading misinformation.

"My committee will call @Meta for this wrong information. Wrong information in any democratic country tarnishes the image of the country. That organization will have to apologize to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake," said Dr Nishikant Dubey, Chairman, Committee on Communications and Information Technology.

Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, triggered a row by claiming in a podcast interview that the Indian government lost the election in 2024 due to its weak Covid response. Vaishnaw opted for Meta’s Facebook platform to call out Zuckerberg for spreading “misinformation”. “It is disappointing to see misinformation from Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility,” the Union I&B minister said, tagging Meta on X and other social media platforms.

Expressing disappointment over Zuckerberg's remark, Ashwini Vaishnaw, wrote: "As the world's largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM @narendramodi Ji's leadership. Mr. Zuckerberg's claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect," Mr Vaishnaw, who handles portfolios of Railways, Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology in the Modi 3.0 government, said in a post on X.