NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — Meta apologized to the Indian government Wednesday as officials confronted the company over the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook post, deepfake material, child sexual abuse content and the paid promotion of selected posts across its platforms.
Sources in India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said Meta admitted during the meetings that “a lot of money was paid for boosting certain types of content.” The officials said Meta expressed regret over its handling of the platform. The government’s account did not identify who paid for the promotion, how much was spent or which posts received the paid boost.
Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan led the company’s delegation in New Delhi. Kaplan and other Meta officials met IT Secretary S. Krishnan for more than 45 minutes before meeting Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Kaplan publicly confirmed that he apologized for Facebook’s handling of Modi’s post.
“I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi’s post,” Kaplan said in a statement.
Government sources separately said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent his apologies over child sexual abuse material, deepfakes and operational failures on Meta’s platforms. Meta had not publicly released a detailed statement from Zuckerberg addressing the reported admission about paid content promotion as of Wednesday.
The confrontation followed Facebook’s temporary restriction of a video Modi posted July 23. Modi first published the video on Instagram before it was shared on Facebook. The message was his first direct response to the nationwide student protests over examination paper leaks. Facebook restored the video after the restriction, and Meta said an operational error had caused it to be blocked inadvertently.
India summoned Meta’s global leadership after the incident. Krishnan said the government had asked the company to appear “at the highest level” and explain what happened. Meta later told Indian authorities that it had established additional protocols for the accounts of prominent public figures to prevent similar restrictions.
The post was released during the Cockroach Janta Party protest movement, a youth-led campaign that grew rapidly on Instagram and brought demonstrators to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The protests began after the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduate medical admissions was canceled following the leak of its question paper. About 2 million students had taken the May 3 examination before authorities scrapped it and conducted a retest in June.
The self-named Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, emerged as a satirical online movement in May and amassed millions of Instagram followers. Its supporters demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the examination failures. Pradhan resigned July 25 after days of sustained demonstrations.
Government sources said officials also raised allegations that Meta’s systems promoted one-sided and anti-government content during the student protests. Those concerns formed part of the broader discussion over Meta’s recommendation systems, content moderation practices and paid promotion tools.
The government’s reported statement that Meta received money to boost selected material confirms that paid amplification was among the issues discussed. No public record released Wednesday identified the promoted accounts or posts or directly connected the payments to CJP organizers.
The government also questioned Meta over child sexual abuse material and paid advertisements appearing on Instagram. Indian authorities had ordered Meta in July to remove advertisements and content promoting such material. Meta said it maintains a zero-tolerance policy and was strengthening its detection systems.
The dispute expanded further after Hyderabad police registered a case against Meta India Managing Director Arun Srinivas over multiple Facebook videos that allegedly depicted Modi in an abusive manner. The videos circulated during the student protest wave. Police said they were preparing to send Meta a formal notice, while the company said it was cooperating with the relevant agencies.
The complaints against Srinivas were among several filed by supporters of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party over allegedly manipulated videos and images circulating on Facebook and Instagram.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology also demanded an apology from Zuckerberg over the restriction of Modi’s video. Committee Chairman Nishikant Dubey said Meta was misusing its safe-harbor protection and warned that the government could pursue its withdrawal if the company failed to act against those responsible.
Government sources said officials told Meta that its role in selecting which users receive content raised questions about whether it could continue claiming the legal protections granted to neutral intermediaries under India’s Information Technology Act. That position was presented by the government during the dispute; no court ruling has stripped Meta of its safe-harbor protection in this case.
Meta has now acknowledged the erroneous restriction of Modi’s post and apologized over broader platform failures. Indian officials say the company also admitted that significant money was used to boost selected content. The identity of the buyers, the material promoted and any direct connection to the CJP protests remain undisclosed.
