Meta apologies Zuckerberg's comments on India, BJP leader says matter closed

FACEBOOK parent company Meta on Wednesday (15) apologised for its CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comments on India being among the countries where the incumbent lost power after handling the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the remarks were an "inadvertent error".

The apology came soon after union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw slammed Zuckerberg's "misinformation" and his party's MP Nishikant Dubey said a parliamentary panel will summon Meta over the comments.

Shivnath Thukral, Meta India's vice president of public policy, via a post on social media platform X clarified that Zuckerberg's observation holds true for several countries, "BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error."

After the apology by Meta India, Dubey, who heads the Parliament's Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said he treated the matter as "closed".

"A Meta India official has finally apologised for the mistake. This is a victory of the common citizens of India," Dubey said in a post on X.

Appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg had said that in elections around the world in 2024, most incumbent governments, including the one in India, had been voted out of power.

Vaishnaw had called out Zuckerberg for making misleading statements about India where prime minister Narendra Modi had won a consecutive third term.

The minister had expressed disappointment at Zuckerberg's remarks and debunked the statement by the Meta honcho as "misinformation".