New Delhi : Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Monday defended Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg amid the controversy over the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post. In a post on X, Moitra alleged that the government frequently pressures social media platforms to take down content critical of it and argued that the brief removal of the Prime Minister’s post did not warrant an apology.
“Hello Mark please do not get bullied & apologise to anyone. Indian govt blackmails & threatens citizens all the time, gets content critical of it removed at will. One video mistakenly removed for few hours didn’t make heavens fall!” she wrote on X. Her remarks came after Meta representatives appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, where lawmakers questioned the company over the temporary restriction on the Prime Minister’s Facebook post and its broader content moderation policies.
Meta informed the panel that it was willing to apologise for the erroneous removal of PM Modi’s post, which was later restored. The company had earlier attributed the incident to a technical glitch, though the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) reportedly described the explanation as inadequate. Members of the committee questioned why the Prime Minister’s post was briefly removed while objectionable content, including pornography, continued to remain available on the platform.
Sources said one BJP MP maintained that an apology alone would not be sufficient and called for legal action against Meta. Another member reportedly said that if the Prime Minister’s content was not safe on the platform, it raised serious concerns about accountability in a democracy. The panel also sought explanations from Meta on allegations of algorithmic bias and the company’s ability to identify and curb deepfake content involving Prime Minister Modi.
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