NEW DELHI: Parliamentary panel head and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nishikant Dubey on Wednesday said the issue of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg‘s remarks on Lok Sabha 2024 elections was now “closed” after an apology tendered by Meta official.
Zuckerberg made an incorrect statement regarding the third-time re-election of Modi’s government in the 2024 elections, attributing it to Covid-19 pandemic management.
Subsequently, Meta India‘s vice president Shivnath Thukral issued an apology, acknowledging it as an “inadvertent error”.
Parliamentary IT committee chairman Dubey in a post on X called it a triumph for Indian citizens. He had previously announced plans to summon Meta following these inaccurate comments about India’s Lok Sabha election results.
“The Indian Parliament and government have the blessings and public trust of 140 crore people. Meta India official has finally apologised for his mistakes. This is the victory of the common citizens of India. By making Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi Ji the Prime Minister for the third time, the people have introduced the country’s strongest leadership to the world. Now the responsibility of our committee ends on this issue. We will call these social platforms in the future on other issues,” he wrote on X.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier contested Zuckerberg’s statements on January 13 through X, emphasising that India, as the world’s largest democracy, conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters who renewed their faith in the NDA government under PM Modi’s leadership.
Vaishnaw, who oversees Information and Broadcasting and IT ministries, dismissed Zuckerberg’s comments as misinformation and stressed that Meta must maintain factual accuracy and credibility.