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Union Minister Ashwini Vaisnaw today fact-checked Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg's claim on the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. In an interview on Friday with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, Mr Zuckerberg wrongly claimed that most incumbent governments, including India, lost elections in 2024.
Mr Zuckerberg's claim "is factually incorrect," said the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had won the 2024 general elections.
Correcting Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Vaishnaw posted on X, "As the world's largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. The people of India reaffirmed their trust in the NDA led by PM".
Mr Zuckerberg, trying to highlight how COVID-19 pandemic led to the global erosion of trust in governments and influenced elections, said, "2024 was a very big election year around the world and all these countries, 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. It seems to have had this effect that's global."
The Union Minister, contradicting Mr Zuckerberg, said, "PM Modi's decisive 3rd-term victory is a testament to good governance and public trust".
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,…
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) January 13, 2025
The announcement triggered alarm with the move being widely seen as an attempt to curry favour with President-elect Donald Trump whose conservative support base has been complaining that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curb free speech.
US President Joe Biden called the move "really shameful" and a global network warned of "devastating consequences" if the tech giant broadened its policy to other countries.
"Some of these countries are highly vulnerable to misinformation that spurs political instability, election interference, mob violence and even genocide," International Fact-Checking Network said in an open letter to Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, however, defended the decision in the interview, comparing the fact-checking program with "something out of 1984," citing George Orwell's dystopian novel.