Vaishnaw counters Zuckerberg: ‘Didn’t lose polls’

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg ran afoul of the Indian government over comments he made on the Joe Rogan podcast, causing union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to tell him to “uphold facts and credibility”

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg ran afoul of the Indian government over comments he made in the Joe Rogan podcast on January 10, causing union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to tell him to “uphold facts and credibility” in a tweet and YouTube comment posted on Monday.

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Zuckerberg to “uphold facts and credibility” following his comments on Indian elections. (ANI)

In the podcast, part of a series of media appearances that Zuckerberg has made after announcing the end of the third-party fact-checking system for the US and a slew of controversial changes to his platforms’ content policies, 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.

“It’s not just the US. I think a lot of the people in the US focus on this as a kind of an American phenomenon but I kind of think that the reaction to Covid probably caused a breakdown in trust in a lot of government around the world. I mean 2024 was a big election year around the world and all these countries, India, just like a ton of countries that had elections and the incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon where the whether it was because of inflation, because of the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid, it seems to have had this effect that is global, not just the US, but like a very broad decrease in trust, at least in that set of incumbents and maybe in sort of these democratic institutions overall,” Zuckerberg said.

In response, on Monday, Vaishnaw tweeted on X/Twitter, “Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect. … @Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility.”

“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,” he added.

Vaishnaw posted the same comment under the podcast’s video on YouTube from his official YouTube account, @AshwiniVaishnawBJP.

It is not known if the Indian government could seek to get the YouTube video blocked in the country over Meta boss’s remarks spreading “misinformation”.