NEW DELHI: The Centre has summoned senior executives of US technology giant Meta after Facebook briefly restricted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video message last week, with the government seeking an explanation from the company over the incident.The video, first uploaded by PM Modi on Instagram and later shared on Facebook, was temporarily unavailable on the social media platform before being restored. Meta had earlier said the restriction was caused by an inadvertent error.“We have asked Meta to come in at the highest level and explain what is happening,” S Krishnan, secretary in the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), said on Thursday.Krishnan did not specify which Meta executives had been asked to appear before the ministry.According to the MeitY secretary, Meta has informed the government that it has introduced new protocols for accounts belonging to prominent public figures to prevent similar incidents from recurring.Meta India did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Thursday.The video, posted by Modi on July 23, marked his first public address on the nationwide student protests over the alleged NEET paper leak, which eventually culminated in the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The post has since garnered more than 404 million views on Instagram.The latest summons comes days after Meta acknowledged that the post had been removed by mistake.“The content was removed in error and has since been restored,” a Meta spokesperson had said after the incident.
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The ministry of electronics and information Technology had previously summoned Meta’s global head of public policy following the temporary restriction of the Prime Minister’s post.The episode is the latest instance of the Modi government taking on major technology companies over content moderation and platform governance, amid growing scrutiny of how global social media firms handle content related to public officials and government communications.
