'Factually incorrect,' Indian minister calls out Zuckerberg over false claim about 2024 election results

India's Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday (Jan 13) called out Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for making an inaccurate claim about India’s 2024 elections.

Zuckerberg had said in a podcast with Joe Rogan that incumbent governments in all countries, including India, lost elections in 2024. The minister called the comments "disappointing" and accused the tech billionaire of spreading misinformation.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won India’s 2024 general election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi securing a third consecutive term in office. However, Zuckerberg said during the podcast that this was not the case.

Zuckerberg said, "2024 was a big election year around the world. All these countries, like India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon – whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid - seems to have had this global effect...There was a broad decrease in trust in incumbents and maybe in these sorts of democratic institutions overall."

'Factually incorrect'

In response, Vaishnaw said, "As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. The people of India reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by PM Narendra Modi's leadership. Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in the 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect."

"From free food for 800 million, 2.2 billion free vaccines, and aid to nations worldwide during COVID, to leading India as the fastest-growing major economy, PM Modi’s decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust. @Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility," Vaishnaw wrote on X.

This is not the only reason why Meta CEO Zuckerberg is making headlines. Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta will be making some changes to the moderation policies and practices, citing its aim to embrace free speech. The company will be altering the way posts, videos, and other content are moderated online. It will be getting rid of fact-checkers and will replace them with user-generated "Community notes", which is similar to Elon Musk's X. This decision has sparked widespread backlash, with countries like Australia and Brazil labeling it a threat to democracy and mental health.

(With inputs from agencies)