Meta has apologised to the Indian government after briefly removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook video, prompting a diplomatic controversy over platform moderation and government oversight in one of the world’s largest markets.
Meta has apologised to the Indian government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook video was briefly taken down in India, with the company saying the post had been removed in error and restored shortly afterwards. The episode, which centred on the Prime Minister’s address on examination paper leaks, has prompted a sharper official response than a routine content moderation dispute would normally attract, according to reports from NDTV, The Week and other Indian outlets.
The government has not accepted Meta’s explanation at face value. Officials told the media that the matter remained “far from settled”, while the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology reportedly summoned senior Meta executives, including its global public policy and Instagram leadership, for an explanation. According to Livemint and The Times of India, the summons reflected concern that the platform’s Indian team had not adequately conveyed the seriousness of the issue to its US-based decision-makers.
The video in question carried particular political sensitivity because it was presented as Modi’s first direct address to Gen Z since protests over paper leaks intensified. That made the temporary removal more than a technical slip: it became a test of how much control a global platform can exercise over the visibility of a sitting prime minister’s message in one of its largest markets.
The broader dispute also points to a recurring concern in India and elsewhere: platforms may describe moderation failures as operational mistakes, but governments increasingly see them as questions of accountability, reach and public influence. Meta has restored the video, yet the political and regulatory reaction suggests the episode is likely to feed wider debate over how much power foreign-owned platforms should have over domestic discourse.
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