Meta Executive Joel Kaplan Apologises For "Error" Restricting PM Modi's Post

A top Meta executive on Wednesday apologised to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on behalf of his company for "restricting" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post.

"I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post," Joel Kaplan, chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta, said in a statement.

Joel Kaplan, along with top Meta executives, also met IT secretary S Krishnan and other senior officials of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) in a discussion that lasted 45 minutes.

India is Meta's largest market by users, with hundreds of millions of people using Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

PM Modi posted the vertical video, speaking directly to the camera, on July 23 -- during the height of protests led by the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The video was was briefly removed from Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, but was later restored.

The US-headquartered social media giant attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) found the explanation "inadequate". The company said the content was removed "in error" and was restored on the platform.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the parliamentary committee on communications and information technology, said the panel blamed Meta.

"Deleting the prime minister's video was not the work of an intermediary, but that of a publisher," Dubey said, adding, "Zuckerberg will have to apologise within three days."

India's parliamentary standing committees scrutinise government policies and can summon officials and company executives to answer questions.

However, they cannot themselves impose penalties, revoke legal protections or direct prosecutions.

Any action against an online platform would have to be taken by the government or the courts under existing law.