New Delhi : The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has given Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg three days to apologise for the brief removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23 video from Facebook and take action against those responsible. The panel, chaired by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, described the incident as an “attack on democracy”.
The committee has warned that if Meta fails to comply within the stipulated three-day period, the Government of India may consider revoking Facebook’s Safe Harbor protection. The controversy began on July 23 when a video of Prime Minister Modi, originally uploaded on Instagram and later shared on Facebook, was briefly taken down from the social media platform. The selfie-style address—his first in that format—announced stringent action against paper leaks amid nationwide student protests led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
Following widespread criticism, Meta restored the video. Earlier this week, the parliamentary panel questioned Meta officials over the incident. The company apologised and attributed the removal to a “technical glitch”. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology rejected the explanation as “not reasonable”, stating that a technology company of Meta’s scale should have systems robust enough to prevent such errors.
The disappearance of the Prime Minister’s video was quickly noticed by BJP leaders and social media users, who raised the issue publicly and sought an explanation from Meta. Separately, the committee has directed major digital platforms—including Google, YouTube, X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat—to remove Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) and objectionable content targeting women within three days.
