MeitY summons Meta over removal of PM Modi's Facebook post, says "technical glitch" explanation not fully acceptable

New Delhi [India], July 28 (ANI): The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has summoned Meta after an authorised Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly taken down, with Secretary S Krishnan telling ANI in an exclusive interview that the company's explanation of a "technical error" does not appear to be acceptable in its entirety.
The post in question was a late-night video message from PM Modi assuring stricter action against paper leaks, in which he said the Union Cabinet would discuss stringent measures and that the government would push to get a Bill passed in Parliament. The video went briefly "unavailable" on Facebook before being restored. A Meta spokesperson had earlier said, "The content was removed in error and has since been restored."
Reacting to the incident, Krishnan said the removal of authorised content from the Prime Minister's verified handle was "extremely disturbing" and should never have happened. He welcomed Meta's unconditional apology as "a good step", but made clear that the ministry was not fully satisfied with the company's explanation.
"What was done was wrong," Krishnan said, adding that while Meta had apologised, the explanation citing a technical glitch in its content-discovery algorithm "does not appear to be an acceptable explanation in its entirety".
He said MeitY had sought more details from Meta and would hold a detailed technical meeting to understand exactly how the error occurred.
The Secretary said the ministry would seek firm assurances from Meta that handles of prominent personalities in India be ring-fenced, and that once an account is verified, content posted on it should not be removed over "flimsy grounds" or algorithmic mistakes. "We will follow this up to see that there are systemic corrections to ensure that such instances do not recur," he said.
Asked separately about discussions with Meta over WhatsApp's proposed username feature, Krishnan said the ministry had received explanations from WhatsApp and other platforms that use usernames, and that these responses were being examined. "We will address the issue in due course," he said. (ANI)