Parliamentary panel to summon Zuckerberg over LS poll remark

This organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliament's Standing Committee, said.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said on Tuesday that the panel would summon Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg for his “factually incorrect” comments that most incumbent governments, including the BJP-led NDA alliance, lost the elections after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“My committee will summon Meta for this... Incorrect information about any democratic country tarnishes its image. This organisation will have to apologise to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake,” Dubey said in a post on ‘X’.

He was reacting to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s criticism of the Facebook co-founder for his “factually incorrect” statement that the incumbent government in India lost the 2024 election.

“It is disappointing to see misinformation from Mr Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility,” Vaishnaw said.

Appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg said that 2024 was the big election year around the world and in a lot of countries like India, the incumbents lost the polls.

“There is some sort of global phenomena, whether it was inflation because of the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid, seems to have this effect that is global, not just the US, but like a very broad decrease in trust, at least in the set incumbents and maybe, in sort of these democratic institutions overall,” he said.

In the 2024 election, the BJP lost its majority, but the ruling alliance won a comfortable majority, paving the way for Narendra Modi’s third straight term.