Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, on Monday said Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video from Facebook, while many of the panel’s members demanded legal action after fixing accountability.
However, the Opposition members of the IT panel, who attended the meeting on Monday, were of the view that dissent cannot be treated as a crime and satire cannot be considered sedition.
Pointing out that the removal of the Prime Minister’s video from Facebook meant that the “mindset was to destabilise the country”, Dubey told reporters after an over three-hour-long meeting of the panel during which the MPs questioned the Meta representatives. “And when a video of the Prime Minister of India can be removed, and they themselves accepted that it was unavailable for five hours between 12:30 am and 5 am…this is a very serious thing and our committee has said two things clearly — that this apology should come from Zuckerberg himself,” he said, adding if Zuckerberg does not apologise then the safe harbour protection they have under Section 79 should be taken back from them, referring to the provision of the Information Technology Act under which social media networks and internet service providers are not legally responsible for third-party content on their platforms.
He also said that if this is how Meta deals with an official post by the PM, then what can the common people of India expect. He said this “failure cannot be dismissed merely as a technical error”.
The questioning came against the backdrop of the government’s summons to Meta’s top executives after the PM’s recent Facebook post addressing India’s youth and promising stringent action against paper leaks was briefly restricted on the platform.
Sources said Meta officials, who expressed regret over the incident, stated that they were ready to apologise, but Dubey insisted that accountability must be fixed and legal action should be taken. Dubey also said that social media platforms don’t listen to the directives of the ministries of Home and IT.
The panel asked Meta to clarify its stand in writing within 10 days.
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In the meeting, Dubey is learnt to have asked Meta to provide the complete audit trail — from the reporting of the content to its restoration — in connection with the brief removal of the PM’s video.
Committee members were said to have described the incident as serious and sought a detailed explanation from Meta on the reasons behind the removal, as well as the safeguards in place to prevent similar incidents in the future, refusing to accept the explanation that it was merely a technical error.
The members also flagged rising incidents of cybercrime and its impact on citizens’ finances and mental health. Describing it as a matter of public safety, economic security and trust, the committee urged officials and tech giants to work on an urgent basis to find out the causes and plug the loopholes. It also discussed whether there is a need to standardise monthly compliance reports filed by intermediaries to ensure proper reporting of these fraud incidents.
Members were also said to have questioned Meta on unbiased application of its policies and rules on bullying, harassment, threats and coordinated abuse, saying several pro-establishment and pro-India pages have faced unexplained removal, strikes, reduced distribution and other restrictions.
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Meta officials also faced tough questions on child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its platforms.
Members were said to have flagged the limited reach of fact-checks issued by official government handles, noting that they often reach only a small fraction of users exposed to the original misinformation. Members emphasised that content officially debunked or clarified should carry a prominent warning or label to alert users.