Wed Jan 15 18:48:07 UTC 2025: ## Meta Apologizes for Zuckerberg’s False Claim About India’s 2024 Elections

**NEW DELHI** – Meta India has issued a public apology for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s inaccurate statement that India’s ruling government lost the 2024 elections due to its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The apology follows sharp criticism from Indian officials, including Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who threatened to summon Meta before a parliamentary committee.

Zuckerberg, in a recent podcast appearance, claimed that incumbent governments globally, including India, lost their 2024 elections due to a post-COVID decline in public trust. This assertion was swiftly rebuked as factually incorrect. India’s 2024 elections saw the re-election of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with over 640 million voters participating.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Meta India’s vice president, Shivnath Thukral, attributed Zuckerberg’s statement to an “inadvertent error,” emphasizing India’s continued importance to the company. Thukral stated that while Zuckerberg’s observation about incumbent parties losing elections in other countries in 2024 holds true, it does not apply to India.

The controversy erupted after Dubey announced his parliamentary committee’s intention to summon Meta to address the “misinformation.” Vaishnaw also condemned Zuckerberg’s statement as an “erroneous assertion,” expressing disappointment at the spread of inaccurate information by the Meta CEO. The apology from Meta comes in response to this mounting pressure.

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