After Mark Zuckerberg recently said that most incumbent governments worldwide, including India, were defeated in elections held post-Covid-19, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday slammed the Meta CEO for spreading “factually incorrect” information on the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and asked Meta to uphold “facts” and “credibility.”
The minister also expressed disappointment at Zuckerberg for promoting misinformation himself.
In a long post on X, Vaishnaw said, “As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM @narendramodi Ji’s leadership.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect,” he added.
Vaishnaw pointed out that the NDA secured a decisive victory in 2024 polls, securing a third consecutive term in office.
“From free food for 800 million, 2.2 billion free vaccines, and aid to nations worldwide during COVID, to leading India as the fastest-growing major economy, PM Modi’s decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust,” he said.
“@Meta, it’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility,” he added.
In a recent podcast with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg had said, “2024 was a big election year around the world. All these countries, like India, had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. There is some sort of a global phenomenon – whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with Covid or just how the governments dealt with Covid – seems to have had this effect that’s global.”
“There was broad decrease in trust in incumbents and maybe in these sorts of democratic institutions overall,” the Meta CEO had said.
With inputs from agencies
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Ashwini Vaishnaw slams Zuckerberg over ‘Modi lost 2024 election’ claim, asks Meta to uphold ‘facts’
