Government summons Meta again over PM Modi Facebook post, seeks policy and technical explanation

The Centre has once again summoned senior executives of Meta Platforms after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post was briefly restricted on the platform last week, escalating its scrutiny of the social media company over the incident.

“Today the Government of India has once again summoned senior executives of Meta after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post was temporarily restricted on the platform, seeking both a policy-level clarification and a technical explanation for the incident," a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) official said.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event on Thursday, S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, said, "We have asked Meta to come in at the highest level and explain what is happening." He said that Meta has informed the government that it has introduced new protocols for accounts belonging to prominent public figures to prevent similar incidents from recurring.

The latest summons comes two days after the Centre first sought an explanation from the social media company over the temporary restriction of the Prime Minister's post, signalling that it continues to closely examine the circumstances that led to the incident.

What happened

The controversy began after a video message by the Prime Minister, which was first posted on Instagram and later shared on Facebook, was briefly restricted on Facebook before being restored. Meta subsequently apologised for the incident, saying the post had been removed inadvertently. "The content was removed in error and has since been restored," a Meta spokesperson had said, while company sources attributed the episode to a technical glitch.

Government rejected Meta's initial explanation

According to PTI, government sources had earlier described Meta's initial explanation—that an issue with its AI-powered automated content filters caused the temporary restriction as "not reasonable", adding that the matter was "not settled and done".

The sources said that if an automated system was indeed responsible for the error, Meta, as a technology company, should move quickly to improve its moderation tools to prevent similar incidents. Meta officials had informed the government that AI-powered automated content filters reviewing shared versions of the Prime Minister's post and related content had inadvertently ended up briefly restricting the original post itself. Government sources had also said the Ministry of Electronics and Information 

Technology viewed the matter "very seriously" and had summoned senior Meta executives, including global officials, to explain the temporary removal. The Centre's fresh summons indicates that it is seeking a more detailed account from the company on both the policy rationale behind the moderation action and the technical failure that led to it, even as Meta says it has introduced additional safeguards for accounts belonging to prominent public figures.