'Inadvertent error': Meta India apologises for Mark Zuckerberg's remark on 2024 elections in India

It has called the statement an "inadvertent error".

“Mark's observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. “We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error,” Meta India’s vice president Shivnath Thukral wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee Tuesday decided to summon Mark Zuckerberg over his remark on the 2024 Indian general election.

BJP MP and chairman of the House panel on Communication and Information Technology Nishikant Dubey said Meta would be summoned on grounds of spreading misinformation.

"Misinformation on a democratic country maligns its image. The organisation would have to apologise to the Parliament and the people here for this mistake," Dubey said in a post on X.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaisnaw earlier trashed Zuckerberg's claim on the results of the Lok Sabha polls last year where he claimed that most incumbent governments, including India, lost elections in 2024.

In an interview on Friday with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg wrongly claimed that most incumbent governments, including India, lost elections in 2024.

Zuckerberg's claim "is factually incorrect," Vaishnaw had said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had won the 2024 general elections.

Correcting Zuckerberg, Vaishnaw had posted on X, "As the world's largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. The people of India reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by PM."

"From free food for 800 million, 2.2 billion free vaccines, and aid to nations worldwide during COVID, to leading India as the fastest-growing major economy, PM Modi’s decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust. @Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility," he said.

During the interview, Zuckerberg was trying to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic led to the global erosion of trust in governments and influenced elections.

"2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon - whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid. It seems to have had this effect that's global," he had said.

Mark Zuckerberg recently announced his social media company Meta is ending its fact-checking program and replacing it with a community-driven system, similar to that of Elon Musk's X.

The announcement triggered alarm with the move being widely seen as an attempt to favour President-elect Donald Trump whose conservative support base has been complaining that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curb free speech.

US President Joe Biden called the move "really shameful" and a global network warned of "devastating consequences" if the tech giant broadened its policy to other countries.