Meta has admitted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video on Facebook was removed in error and has since restored it, after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) summoned the global heads of Meta and Instagram over the incident.
The video, in which Modi announced that stricter action against exam paper leaks would be tabled at a forthcoming Cabinet meeting, had already attracted millions of views before access was briefly restricted in the early hours of 28 July. Reports indicate Facebook initially blocked the content in response to what appeared to be a legal request. Meta has since clarified the takedown was a mistake.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed: "The content was removed in error and has since been restored."
The episode unfolded against a politically charged backdrop. Modi had posted two selfie-style Reels on Instagram within days of each other, addressing the examination paper leak scandal and responding to nationwide student protests. The first video drew more than 300 million views in 24 hours, making it the most-viewed Instagram reel in the platform's history at that point.
The surge in viewership also pushed Modi's Instagram follower count significantly higher. He has now crossed 105 million followers on the platform, making him the first serving world leader to reach that figure. By comparison, US President Donald Trump holds the second spot among world leaders on Instagram with 43.2 million followers in less than half of Modi's total.
MeitY's decision to summon Meta's global heads signals that India's regulatory posture toward large platforms is hardening. The government has previously warned that failure to comply with content directions could threaten a platform's safe harbour protections under Section 79 of the IT Act. For businesses and professionals whose communications, outreach and livelihoods run on Meta-owned platforms, the incident is a reminder of how quickly algorithmic or compliance errors can make content invisible and how little recourse users have until a government steps in.
