Parliamentary panel demands Zuckerberg’s personal apology over Modi video removal, threaten Meta immunity

New Delhi: Parliament’s standing committee on communications and information technology has told Meta that a routine expression of regret will not suffice for the brief removal of a Facebook video featuring the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The panel wants Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg to apologize personally, and has warned that the company’s legal immunity as an intermediary could be withdrawn if he refuses.

The committee, chaired by the Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, summoned representatives of Meta, Google and YouTube on Tuesday, along with senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Union home ministry. The three-hour session was meant to examine social media regulation, algorithmic transparency and platform accountability more broadly, but the Modi video incident dominated proceedings.

At issue is a Facebook video in which Modi addressed young people and promised strict action against examination paper leaks. Meta representatives told the panel the video had gone missing between 12.30am and 5am, a removal lasting roughly five hours, according to Dubey.

Committee members pressed Meta on who had authorized the takedown and why this particular video was pulled while other, genuinely objectionable material continued to circulate unchecked on the platform. Meta’s representatives reportedly conceded the lapse and offered regret during the meeting. Panel members made clear that an apology alone would not close the matter, and that accountability for the decision needed to be fixed, with legal action to follow wherever warranted.

Dubey’s warning on safe harbour

Speaking after the meeting, Dubey said the incident was serious enough to warrant Zuckerberg’s direct and personal apology, rather than one offered through subordinates. He argued that Meta does not act on directives from the home ministry or the electronics and information technology ministry, and suggested the company’s conduct reflected a deeper disregard for Indian authority.

He went further, saying Meta’s safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act ought to be revoked should Zuckerberg decline to apologize. Section 79 shields intermediaries – platforms and internet service providers – from liability for content posted by third parties, provided they meet certain compliance conditions. Stripping that protection would expose Meta to direct legal liability for material hosted on its platforms in India, a consequence with far wider implications than a single video takedown.

Dubey also invoked an earlier controversy from January 2025, when Zuckerberg claimed on Joe Rogan’s podcast that most incumbent governments, India included, had lost elections after the Covid-19 pandemic. The claim was factually wrong, since the National Democratic Alliance under Modi won a third term in 2024, and it drew a sharp rebuke from the information and broadcasting minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, at the time. Meta ultimately apologised through a senior India official after Dubey threatened to summon Zuckerberg over that remark as well.

Several committee members reportedly used the meeting to raise a broader grievance: that Meta draws substantial advertising revenue from the Indian market yet resists the country’s regulatory requirements. The panel also asked what recourse an ordinary Indian user would have if even the prime minister’s own content could disappear from the platform without clear explanation, a question that goes to the heart of the transparency demands now being placed on major technology companies operating in India.

Dubey’s committee has previously shown a willingness to escalate such disputes quickly – the January 2025 election-remark episode was resolved within days once Meta’s India office issued a public apology. Whether the present matter follows a similar course, or hardens into a test case for safe harbour enforcement, will depend on how Meta responds to the demand for Zuckerberg’s personal intervention in the coming days.