Meta India Apologizes For Zuckerberg’s 2024 Poll Loss Remark, Calls It ‘Inadvertent Error’

New Delhi: Meta India on Wednesday apologized for its owner, Mark Zuckerberg’s remark that the incumbent government in India was defeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the country. The organization called it an ‘inadvertent error.’ The apology by Meta India’s Vice-President Shivnath Thukral on social media comes a day after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the parliamentary panel on IT, said it would summon Meta’s officials over the comment.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in the 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error. India remains an incredibly important country for Meta, and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future,” Shivnath Thukral, Meta India’s Vice President, wrote on X, in response to a post by IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Nishikant Dubey reshared Thukral’s apology and called it a ‘victory of the common citizens’ of India.

“The Indian Parliament and government have the blessings and trust of 1.4 billion people. An official from Meta India has finally apologised for their mistakes. This victory belongs to the common citizens of India,” Dubey wrote, adding that the House panel would summon Meta and other social media platforms on other matters in the future.

“Narendra Modi has been elected as Prime Minister for the third time. The people have introduced the country’s strongest leadership to the world. We will summon these social platforms on other matters in the future,” the BJP MP wrote.

Zuckerberg made the false statement on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, while discussing the global erosion of trust in governments following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of people in the United States focus on this as an American phenomenon, but I kind of think that the reaction to Covid probably caused a breakdown and trust in a lot of governments around the world, because 2024 was a big election year around the world. And you know there are all these countries, India, just like a ton of countries, that had elections and the incumbents, basically lost every single one of them,” Zuckerberg had said on the podcast.