BJP’s MP Nishikant Dubey, who also chairs the parliamentary standing committee on communications and information technology, declared on Tuesday that his group will invite Meta to respond to remarks from the company’s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg. The row began when Zuckerberg said that the Indian government was defeated in the 2024 parliamentary polls because of the way it was handling COVID-19.
On X (formerly Twitter), Dubey condemned in the harshest terms Zuckerberg’s words as an act of misinformation, which demeans the image of democratic institutions. He further said, “my committee will invite Meta for this misinformation. If the data is wrong, it will definitely ruin the image of any democratic state.” Dubey also asked Meta to tender an apology to the Indian Parliament and the people of the country considering the remark as a mistake that requires correction.
Zuckerberg’s remarks came during a podcast featuring updates on Meta‘s content standards where the company announced it stopped third-party fact-checking in the US. Speaking in the podcast, Zuckerberg pointed out that global elections in the calendar year 2024, including India, witnessed reliance on incumbent governments, which he blamed on the breakdown of trust due Covid-19 crisis. He further explained that due to the pandemic, people have lost their trust in governments across the globe, not only in America, and he pointed out that incumbents have been voted out of office in several countries because of economic measures regarding Covid or the government’s approach to it.
Facebook chief’s remark has come in for criticism in India, with many dismissing them as baseless and regretting that such words can destabilize a democratic country like India.
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