Social media giant Meta Removed video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing protesters from Facebook, government had launched an investigation

Social media giant Meta has apologized for removing a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing protesters from Facebook. Meta sources say the video was removed due to a technical glitch. 

But the government had launched an investigation into the incident. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has initiated a formal inquiry into the incident. According to government sources, MeitY has issued official notices and is expected to summon senior global executives from Meta and Instagram to New Delhi. Officials are demanding a detailed technical explanation of how an automated system could mistakenly censor a head of state during a matter of national public interest. It had also summoned top Meta officials to provide an explanation. An apology followed.

“The Prime Minister’s video was removed in error and later restored,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. However, government sources said they are taking the incident very seriously. The Ministry of Information Technology has already contacted the global heads of Meta and Instagram and initiated steps to summon them.

The incident took place amid nationwide protests demanding the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following the NEET-UG paper leak. The video was posted late at night.  This was a video of Prime Minister Modi directly appealing to students. The controversy arose after the video was removed and later restored.