Meta has now apologized for a wrong statement made by Mark Zuckerberg regarding the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had claimed in a post that in the elections held after the Corona period, governments were ousted from power in most countries including India.
However, this claim was false in the context of India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power for the third consecutive term and the BJP alone won 240 Lok Sabha seats. After the controversy over this post escalated, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav sought a reply from Meta, after which the company admitted its mistake and apologized.
What was the matter?
After the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Mark Zuckerberg had posted a post in which he had said that after the Corona epidemic, governments all over the world lost the elections, including India.
- The comments made about India in this post proved wrong, because Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister for the third time.
- The BJP alone won 240 seats, giving the NDA government a clear majority.
- BJP leaders and supporters reacted sharply to this post of Zuckerberg.
Ashwini Vaishnav expressed strong protest
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav expressed strong opposition to this comment of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg on X (formerly Twitter). they wrote:
“The 2024 general elections were held in India, the world’s largest democracy, in which 64 crore voters took part. The people of India once again expressed confidence in the NDA government led by Narendra Modi. Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that after the Corona period, most of the governments of the world including India lost the elections, is completely wrong.
India provided free ration to 80 crore people, 2.2 billion vaccine doses and helped many countries during the pandemic. India remains the fastest growing economy. PM Modi’s third consecutive victory is proof that the public trusts his work. It is disappointing for Meta to provide such misinformation. Please keep the correct facts so that trust is maintained.”
After this strong opposition, Meta had to react to this.
Meta apologized, said – India is important for us
Responding to Ashwini Vaishnav’s post, Meta’s Vice President (Public Policy) Shivnath Thukral apologized and said:
“Honourable Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Mark’s comment that most governments were not returned to power in the 2024 elections was true for many countries. But in the case of India it was wrong. We apologize for this mistake. India is an important country for META and we see our future here.”
Government and BJP expressed protest over Zuckerberg’s statement
BJP and government expressed strong displeasure over Mark Zuckerberg’s wrong comment.
- BJP supporters and leaders criticized Zuckerberg on social media.
- Considering the seriousness of the matter, a demand was also raised to issue summons to Zuckerberg and call him for appearance.
- But, before the controversy could escalate, Meta handled the situation by apologizing unconditionally.
