India remains an incredibly important country for Meta and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future, said Meta India vice president Shivnath Thukral after apologising for its “misinformation” by clubbing India with countries where the ruling party lost elections in 2024.
Apology From Meta India
Meta India has apologised for its CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that the incumbent government in India lost the 2024 general elections due to its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It has called the statement an “inadvertent error”.
“Mark’s observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error,” Meta India’s vice president Shivnath Thukral wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
India Remains An Incredibly Important Country For Meta
“India remains an incredibly important country for @Meta and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future,” he added.
Biggest Market
According to Statista.com, there are more than 378 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size.
In January 2024, India had a total of 362 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world.
The United States had 169 million users, and Brazil had 134 million, the site mentioned.
India is the largest market for Meta’s family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with a combined user base of over a billion monthly users, according to Moneycontrol.com.
Meta India net profit increased by 43 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 504.93 crore for the financial year ended March 2024 (FY24), as the social networking giant benefited from strong growth in online advertising, fueled by rising digital adoption in the country, the report said.
BJP’s Reaction
A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tuesday decided to summon Mark Zuckerberg over his remark on the 2024 Indian general election.
BJP MP and chairman of the House panel on Communication and Information Technology Nishikant Dubey said Meta would be summoned on grounds of spreading misinformation.
Demand For An Apology
“Misinformation on a democratic country maligns its image. The organisation would have to apologise to the Parliament and the people here for this mistake,” Dubey said in a post on X.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaisnaw earlier trashed Zuckerberg’s claim on the results of the Lok Sabha polls last year where he claimed that most incumbent governments, including India, lost elections in 2024.
Zuckerberg’s Incorrect Claim
In an interview on Friday with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg wrongly claimed that most incumbent governments, including India, lost elections in 2024.
Zuckerberg’s claim “is factually incorrect,” Vaishnaw had said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had won the 2024 general elections.
Union Minister Ashwani Vaishnav Checks Zuckerberg
Correcting Zuckerberg, Vaishnaw had posted on X, “As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. The people of India reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by PM.”
“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. @Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility,” he said.
What Did Zuckerberg Say?
During the interview, Zuckerberg was trying to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic led to the global erosion of trust in governments and influenced elections.
“2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon – whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid. It seems to have had this effect that’s global,” he had said.
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced his social media company Meta is ending its fact-checking programme and replacing it with a community-driven system, similar to that of Elon Musk’s X.
