Parliamentary committee to sumon Meta over Zuckerberg's remarks on Indian polls

The Parliamentary Committee will summon the American multinational conglomerate Meta over remarks its co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, made indirectly about India during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast.

Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP and chairman of the House panel on Communication and Information Technology said that "organisation would have to apologise". "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 took to X.

In the podcast, Zuckerberg said, "2024 was a very big election year around the world, and all these countries had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of global phenomenon—whether it was because of inflation, the economic policies to deal with COVID-19, or just how the governments dealt with the pandemic. It seems to have had this effect that's global."

Following this, Union IT and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday expressed his "disappointment" and asked him to "uphold facts and credibility".

"As the world's largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM @narendramodi Ji’s leadership," Vaishnaw took to X to contest Zuckerberg's claims.

"Mr Zuckerberg's claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect," he added.

"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," the Union Minister wrote.
(With inputs from IANS)