"Have To Apologise": Parliamentary Panel To Summon Zuckerberg Over India Election Remark
New Delhi: After Mark Zuckerberg falsely claimed the incumbent government in India lost the election in 2024 due to its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chairman of the House panel on Communications and Information Technology, Nishikant Dubey, said that Meta would be summoned on grounds of spreading misinformation.
In a post on X, Dubey said, “My committee will call Meta for this wrong information. Misinformation in any democratic country tarnishes the image of the country. The organisation would have to apologise to the Parliament and the people here for this mistake.”
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मेरी कमिटि इस ग़लत जानकारी के लिए @Meta को बुलाएगी । किसी भी लोकतांत्रिक देश की ग़लत जानकारी देश की छवि को धूमिल करती है । इस गलती के लिए भारतीय संसद से तथा यहाँ की जनता से उस संस्था को माफ़ी माँगनी पड़ेगी https://t.co/HulRl1LF4z
— Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) January 14, 2025
During a podcast, the Facebook co-founder said that the Covid pandemic had led to a lack of trust in incumbent governments across the world and incorrectly gave an example of India for the same.
“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,” said Zuckerberg.
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After the clip surfaced, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Indian people had “reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM Narendra Modi ji’s leadership.”
Calling it “disappointing” to see misinformation from Zuckerberg himself, Vaishnaw said, “Let’s uphold facts and credibility.”
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,…
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) January 13, 2025
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The incumbent BJP government suffered setbacks in the general election held in 2024 and ended below the majority mark. However, the NDA alliance secured a comfortable majority with key allies bolstering the numbers for the BJP. As a result, PM Modi became the second Indian Prime Minister to secure three consecutive terms.
The first prime minister to create the record was Jawaharlal Nehru.
