A Facebook video of PM Narendra Modi addressing students on examination paper leaks was temporarily withheld before Meta restored it, admitting the removal was accidental.
BY PC Bureau
New Delhi: Meta has apologised after a video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly blocked on Facebook, attributing the incident to a technical glitch. The company has since restored the video.
According to sources, the video was inadvertently removed before being reinstated shortly afterwards. A Meta spokesperson said, “The content was removed in error and has since been restored.”
The Centre is treating the incident seriously and is examining both Meta’s explanation and the circumstances that led to the temporary removal. Sources said the government is reviewing the sequence of events and may seek a detailed explanation from the company. According to IANS, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has summoned the global heads of Meta and Instagram over the matter.
PM Modi’s Message to Students
The video, uploaded on July 23, carried Prime Minister Modi’s address to Gen Z students amid nationwide protests over alleged examination paper leaks.
In the message, the Prime Minister assured students that the government would introduce tougher safeguards to curb paper leaks. He announced plans to place stricter legal provisions before the Union Cabinet, establish fast-track courts for paper leak cases, and ensure stringent punishment for those responsible.
Modi also said the government had safeguarded the academic future of nearly 22 lakh students and stressed that “nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth.”
The video had garnered millions of views before it became inaccessible to Facebook users in India during the early hours of Tuesday. Those attempting to access it were shown a notice stating that the content had been withheld in the region in response to a legal request.
The episode has sparked questions about the moderation of official government content on major social media platforms, with the Centre closely monitoring the handling of the Prime Minister’s video.
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Meta restores PM Modi’s selfie video.@narendramodi https://t.co/WdkGjKgxWa
— Manish Kumar (@Palamu7Manish) July 28, 2026
Meta’s Content Moderation Policies
Meta says it enforces its content moderation through a combination of automated systems and human reviewers. Content may be removed or restricted if it is found to violate the company’s Community Standards or if it receives a legally valid request from a government under local laws.
The company also uses automated detection tools to identify potentially problematic content. While these systems help moderate billions of posts, Meta has acknowledged that they can occasionally make mistakes, resulting in legitimate content being removed or restricted. Such errors are typically corrected after internal review or user appeals.
For government and public-interest content, Meta maintains that it applies the same Community Standards while also considering the newsworthiness and public interest of the material. The temporary blocking of the Prime Minister’s video has renewed scrutiny of how automated moderation systems handle high-profile political content and whether additional safeguards are needed to prevent similar errors.
