In the midst of row over Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2024 general elections comment, Meta India's Vice-president apologised today for the “mistake”.
Responding to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s post fact-checking Zuckerberg’s comment on 2024 elections across the world, Meta India’s vice-president (public policy) Shivnath Thukral said" Dear Honourable Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mark's observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, but not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error. India remains an incredibly important country for Meta and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future."
This comes a day after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliamentary standing committee on Communication and Information Technology, said Meta will be summoned for spreading misinformation for Zuckerberg’s comment.
"Misinformation on a democratic country maligns its image. The organisation would have to apologise to the Parliament and the people here for this mistake," Mr Dubey said in a post on X.
In a podcast on January 10, the 40-year-old Facebook co-founder said the Covid pandemic had led to erosion of trust in incumbent governments worldwide. He incorrectly cited India’s example in this.
"2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon - whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid. It seems to have had this effect that's global," he said.
Soon after, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw fact-checked the statement and said the people of India had re-elected the NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2020 Lok Sabha election.
"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 Railways, Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology portfolios in the Modi 3.0 government, said in a post on X.
"From free food for 800 million, 2.2 billion free vaccines, and aid to nations worldwide during COVID, to leading India as the fastest-growing major economy, PM Modi's decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust. Meta, it's disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let's uphold facts and credibility,"
