Meta apologises over Zuckerberg's remark on 2024 India elections; 'inadvertent error'

Meta India on Wednesday (Jan 15) issued an apology over CEO Mark Zuckerberg's remark on the 2024 Indian general elections, where he claimed that the incumbent governments in all countries, including India, lost polls last year.

Calling the remark an 'inadvertent error', Meta India's vice-president (public policy) Shivanand Thukral released a statement, responding to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's post on X.

"Dear Honourable Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mark's observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. 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," Thukral said.

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This comes after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said he would send summons to Meta and would also call upon the tech company to apologise to India’s Parliament.

“My committee will call Meta for this wrong information," Dubey wrote.

“Wrong information in any democratic country tarnishes the image of the country. That organization will have to apologize to the Indian Parliament and the people here for this mistake," the MP added.

What did Zuckerberg say?

Zuckerberg had said in a podcast with Joe Rogan that the incumbent governments in all countries, including India, lost elections in 2024.

The tech mogul 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 may be in these sorts of democratic institutions overall."

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

India's minister calls out Zuckerberg

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.

(With inputs from agencies)