Meta CEO apologizes to India over Modi post and child abuse

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to the Indian government for a series of operational lapses on the company's platforms, including the temporary removal of a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the presence of illegal child abuse material. The apology was conveyed on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, following high-level meetings between a Meta global delegation and Indian officials in New Delhi.

The meetings, led by Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, were held with IT Secretary S. Krishnan and later with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The discussions were initiated after the government summoned Meta's global executives over an incident last month in which a Facebook post by Prime Minister Modi was briefly restricted. The post, originally made on Instagram on July 23 and later shared on Facebook, featured a selfie video in which Modi addressed the nation's youth and promised stringent action against examination paper leaks.

Meta had previously attributed the removal to a technical glitch in its AI-powered automated content filters, stating the post was removed in error and quickly restored. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)...