New Delhi: The Indian government has once again summoned senior executives of US tech giant Meta Platforms over Facebook briefly restricting a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.
“We have asked Meta to come in at the highest level and explain what is happening,” Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S. Krishnan said on Thursday.
Krishnan said Meta had informed Indian authorities that it has introduced fresh protocols for accounts belonging to prominent public figures to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
There was no immediate response from Meta India to Reuters’ request.
In his first public message on the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led student protests over the NEET paper leak, PM Modi had uploaded a late-night video message on Instagram on July 23, which was shared on Facebook. The post remained accessible on Instagram, but was temporarily blocked on Facebook before being restored.
Meta had earlier apologised to the government for blocking Modi’s message to students on Facebook, attributing it to a technical error.
“The content was removed in error and has since been restored,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement on July 28.
The massive agitation, which saw thousands of students and Gen-Z youths joining the protest at Jantara Mantar, ultimately led to the resignation of Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.