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Meta apologizes for removal of India Prime Minister Modi’s Facebook post

Meta Platforms Inc. apologized to Indian officials for temporarily restricting a Facebook post of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan telling Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi on Wednesday, "I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for error restricting PM Modi's post." The apology comes as Meta faces scrutiny in India over child sexual content on its platforms and a request from the federal tech ministry to delay WhatsApp's new usernames feature over impersonation and digital arrest concerns.

read1 min views1 publishedAug 5, 2026
Meta apologizes for removal of India Prime Minister Modi’s Facebook post
Image: Mercurynews (auto-discovered)

Getting your

Trinity Audioplayer ready...By Sankalp Phartiyal and Rajesh Roy, Bloomberg

A team of Meta executives led by the company’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan met with federal Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the capital New Delhi Wednesday.

“I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for error restricting PM Modi’s post,” Kaplan said in a statement shared by Meta.

Modi late last month posted a selfie video on Instagram and Facebook addressing students over examination paper leaks that stirred nationwide protests. The Facebook version of the video was temporarily restricted before being restored.

At the time, Meta said the content was removed erroneously.

Over the past month, Menlo Park, California-based Meta has drawn India’s scrutiny for sexual content involving children on its platforms including Instagram. Meta said it’s constantly improving defenses and that it has zero tolerance for such content.

Separately, the federal tech ministry has also asked Meta’s WhatsApp messenger to delay the launch of its new usernames feature — which allows users to connect without sharing numbers — over impersonation and digital arrest concerns.

Meta did not specify whether those issues were addressed in the meeting with officials Wednesday.

India’s is the biggest market for Meta by number of users. WhatsApp is used by more than 600 million people in the country.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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