India summons Meta executives over briefly restricted Modi Facebook post
FILE PHOTO: People are seen behind a logo of Meta Platforms, during a conference in Mumbai, India, September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo
MUMBAI, July 30 - India has summoned executives from U.S. tech giant Meta, a senior official said on Thursday, after its Facebook platform briefly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.
• A video message by Modi posted on Meta's Instagram platform and later shared on Facebook was restricted temporarily on the latter.
• A Meta spokesperson said at the time that the post had been blocked inadvertently.
• "We have asked Meta to come in at the highest level and explain what is happening," S. Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said on Thursday.
• He did not say who, specifically, had been requested to appear.
• Meta told Indian authorities it established new protocols relating to accounts of prominent persons to prevent such a situation from recurring, Krishnan added.
• Meta India did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Thursday.
• Modi's video post on July 23, his first addressing the massive student protests that forced Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign on Saturday, has more than 404 million views on Instagram.
• The sparring with Meta is the latest example of Modi's government taking on Big Tech over content-related issues.
• India is Facebook's biggest market by users.
(Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Joe Bavier)
