The discussions follow an incident in which a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about measures against exam paper leaks was temporarily taken down from FacebookMeta later attributed the removal to a technical glitch.
Published: August 4, 2026, 6:45 PM IST
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Meta has been summoned by the Indian government over PM Modi’s Facebook postRepresentational image
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan said Meta officials will hold discussions with government representatives on August 5 and 6 over key concerns, including compliance matters, synthetic content, and measures to prevent wrongful takedowns of content featuring public figuresThe talks come days after Facebook briefly removed a video shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Meta calling it a technical error.
“Meta executives are expected to meet govt representatives on 5th and 6th AugustIssues related to India’s law, compliance issues, synthetically generated information, safeguards on content takedowns related to prominent personalities are expected to be taken up,” the MeitY Secretary saidThe social media platform briefly restricted access to the video in the early hours of July 28 before restoring itFurthermore, the video was briefly unavailable before being restored“The content was removed in error and has since been restored,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
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The video was originally posted on July 23 and marked Prime Minister Modi’s first direct address to Gen Z amid a 36-day student agitation led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2026 examinationFollowing the incident, the government had asked Meta to send its senior-most representatives to explain the circumstances surrounding the issue and provide clarity at both policy and technical levels.
The MeitY Secretary said that Meta has written to the government expressing regret over the incident and shared its understanding of the reasons behind it“Meta has written to the government expressing regret over the incident and that it had happenedThey have also given us the reasons, their understanding of the reason why it happened and they have also indicated that as of 28th of July, they have established new protocols relating to accounts of prominent persons to avoid such a situation from recurring,” he said.
‘Zuckerberg should apologise for removal of PM’s video’: Nishikant Dubey
The head of the department-related standing committee on information technology, Nishikant Dubey, on Monday said Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video from Facebook, while several other members demanded legal action after fixing accountability.
However, according to sources, opposition MPs in the panel said that space for dissent in social media is a must and “anti-government” content should not be considered “anti-national”.
At the committee meeting, Dubey said the removal of the prime minister’s video from Facebook was either a serious failure of the system or there “is a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the prime minister” on the part of Meta and Instagram.
