Meta Explains Takedown Of PM Modi's Video At Meet With IT Secretary: Sources

Meta's top global executives on Wednesday met Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan after the government summoned the company over the brief removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post on July 23, sources said.According to sources, the meeting lasted around 45 minutes, during which Meta officials explained the reasons behind the temporary takedown of PM Modi's video on Facebook.Top Meta executives, including global public policy head Joel Kaplan, met S Krishnan and other government officials, the sources added.The meeting comes amid the government's secrutiny of Meta after PM Modi's video, in which he addressed the youth and promised strict action against paper leaks, was briefly restricted on Facebook on JUly 23.Meta quickly restored the post after receiving a major backlash.The Meta team is also scheduled to meet Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw later in the day.Earlier this week, Meta officials faced tough questions from the government at a meeting with the Parliamentary panel over the incident.While the company apologised for what it described as a "technical glitch" that led to the removal of the video, the IT ministry said the explanation was "not reasonable".Government officials maintained that if the removal was indeed caused by a glitch, Meta, as a technology company, should improve its own tools to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.PM Modi's post, first shared on Instagram and later on Facebook on July 23, was his first direct selfie video aimed at engaging with the youth and highlighting the government's commitment to cracking down on paper leaks amid student protests at the time.Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology issued a three-day ultimatum to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to apologise for the brief removal of PM Modi's video and take action against those responsible.The panel, chaired by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, said the deletion of PM Modi's video - who is the representative of 1.4 billion Indians - is an "attack on democracy".