India summons Meta officials over temporary restriction of Modi’s Facebook post

MUMBAI: India has summoned senior officials of Meta to explain why a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was temporarily restricted last week, a senior government official said on Thursday.

The post, which contained a video message shared by Modi on Instagram before being cross-posted to Facebook, was briefly blocked on the social media platform.

A Meta spokesperson had earlier said the restriction was caused by an unintended error.

“We have asked Meta to come in at the highest level and explain what is happening,” S. Krishnan, secretary at India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said while speaking to reporters.

He did not disclose which Meta executives had been asked to appear before the ministry.

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Krishnan said Meta had informed Indian authorities that it had introduced new protocols for accounts belonging to prominent public figures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Meta India did not immediately comment on the matter.

The video, posted by Modi on July 23, marked his first public response to student protests that resulted in the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the weekend.

The post has since gained more than 404 million views on Instagram.

The development is the latest dispute between the Indian government and major technology companies over content moderation and platform policies.

With India being Facebook’s largest market by user numbers, the government has increasingly engaged with global technology firms over issues related to online content, transparency and regulation.