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Parliament panel to summon Meta executives: MP Nishikant Dubey

By, New Delhi
Jan 15, 2025 07:12 AM IST

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey plans to summon Meta executives for "tarnishing" India's image after Zuckerberg's comments on election results, seeking an apology.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the parliamentary standing committee on communications and information technology, said on Tuesday that the panel will summon executives from social media giant Meta for “tarnishing” India’s image amid row over its CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statement about the Lok Sabha election results.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. (PTI)
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. (PTI)

In a podcast on January 10, Zuckerberg said that after Covid, people lost trust in information given by the governments because of which incumbent governments that went to polls in 2024 lost, triggering backlash from Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who dismissed the remarks as “factually incorrect” and warned the Meta boss to “uphold facts and credibility”.

Reacting to the remarks on Tuesday, Dubey sought an apology from the social media giant.

“My committee will summon Meta for this incorrect information. Incorrect information about any democratic country tarnishes its image. This organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake,” he said in a post on X.

Talking to news agency ANI, Dubey said that the committee would summon Meta executives to appear between January 20 and 24.

“Meta’s owner Zuckerberg, in a statement, said that after Covid-19, there has been a sentiment against incumbent governments worldwide. And there, he has mentioned India as well. … Zuckerberg’s statement is alarming because across the world, there is a feeling that on social media platforms, there is a lot of bad content about women and children. … In such a situation, such a statement shows that he is interfering in the democracy of India. And he is trying to mislead the entire world by giving wrong information that we, BJP or NDA, lost the elections. Because of this, the parliament which represents 140 crore Indians, … because he did not mention the results of the elections correctly, we have decided that we are going to summon the people of Meta and they must apologise. Otherwise, our committee will recommend all possible legal action against them,” he said.

Dubey said that the committee would go on a study tour to Andaman and Nicobar Islands from January 15 until January 20. He said he would talk to the members during this tour and would call Meta executives on a day between January 20 and 24. Dubey did not respond to requests for a comment till the time of print.

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