Meta India has apologized for Mark Zuckerberg’s comment that the incumbent government in India lost the 2024 election, calling it an “inadvertent error.”
“We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error. India remains a significant country for Meta and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future,” Meta India’s vice president Shivnath Thukral wrote on X.
The apology came after Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw countered Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday on his claim that after the COVID-19 pandemic, most incumbent governments, including the one in India, lost elections in 2024, asserting that his statement was “factually incorrect”.
In a post on X, Vaishnaw said that as the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 general election, which involved more than 640 million (64 crores) voters.
“People of India reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by PM Narendra Modi ji’s leadership. Mr Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in the 2024 elections, lost post-Covid is factually incorrect,” the information and broadcasting minister noted.
Zuckerberg appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and said 2024 was a big election year worldwide, and in many countries, like India, the incumbents lost the polls.
“Dear Honourable Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw, Mark’s observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds for several countries, but not India,” said Thukral.
On Tuesday, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who leads the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, stated that the panel will summon the firm following its chairman’s comments about the ruling dispensation’s defeat in last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
“My committee will summon Meta for this incorrect information. Incorrect information about any democratic country tarnishes its image. This organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake,” Dubey said in a post on X.
