Meta apologises for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about Indian elections

Technology company Meta’s vice president of public policy in India Shivnath Thukral on Tuesday apologised for co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s claims about incumbent governments being voted out of power in elections worldwide in 2024, including in India.

“Mark’s observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India,” Thukral said in a post on social media. “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.”

He said this in response to Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw calling Zuckerberg’s statement factually incorrect.

On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology had said it planned to summon the company over the matter between January 20 and 24.

In an episode of the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, released on January 10, the Facebook co-founder said: “2024 was a big election year around the world, and there are all these countries, India, just like a ton of countries that had elections. And the incumbents basically lost every single one.”

Zuckerberg attributed this to citizens losing trust in incumbent dispensations due to their poor handling of the Covid-19…

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