Speaking on the podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience," Meta CEO Zuckerberg stated that many incumbent government lost the elections in 2024, including India. The Meta CEO's remarks went on to spark a row in India
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sparked a row after he claimed that the incumbent BJP government in India lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Days after his remarks sparked a row in India, the tech company issued an apology on behalf of its founder.
Taking to X, Meta Vice President for Public Policy Shivanth Thukral issued an apology on behalf of Zuckerberg and his comment.
Replying to Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on X, Thukral said - "Mark's observation that many incumbent parties were not re-elected in 2024 elections holds true for several countries, BUT not India. We would like to apologise for this inadvertent error."
The public policy VP added that India "remains an incredibly important country for Meta and we look forward to being at the heart of its innovative future."
Speaking on the podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience," Meta CEO Zuckerberg stated that many incumbent government lost the elections in 2024, including India.
“A lot of people in the US focus on this as an American phenomenon, but I kind of think that the reaction to Covid probably caused a breakdown and trust in a lot of governments around the world, because 2024 was a big election year around the world. And you know there are all these countries, India, just like a ton of countries that had elections and the incumbents basically lost every single one of them," said Zucerkberg.
Last year was dubbed as the "year of the ballot" as 65 nations went to the polls to vote for a new government.
Zuckerberg's statement may have been false but the incumbent BJP party did lose out of many seats. From a majority of 302 votes in the 2019 general elections, BJP's seats came down to 240.