GUWAHATI: Meta has apologised to the Central government after a video post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly removed from Facebook due to what the company described as an operational error.
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According to reports, Joel Kaplan, Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer, apologised to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during a meeting held on Wednesday.
"I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post," Kaplan reportedly said after meeting the minister along with his team.
The apology comes weeks after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) summoned Meta executives following the temporary restriction of a Facebook post by the Prime Minister. Meta had earlier stated that the removal was inadvertent and resulted from an operational error.
According to reports, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also conveyed his apologies to the Indian government over the incident, as well as concerns related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfake content, and errors in the platform's operations.
The controversy unfolded amid widespread youth-led protests across India over alleged leaks of national examination papers, which triggered significant public criticism of the government and eventually led to the resignation of the Union Education Minister.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Modi has also faced intense criticism and satire on social media over the examination controversy, adding to tensions between the government and Meta over content moderation and platform accountability.
The latest meeting signals efforts by both sides to address concerns surrounding content moderation, online safety and compliance with India's digital regulations.