NEW DELHI: Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday fact checked a recent claim by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg regarding 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India.
“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 Narendra Modi Ji’s leadership. Mr. Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect,” Vaishnaw wrote in a post on X.
“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,” the minister tweeted.
Tagging Meta, the minister wrote: “It’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Let’s uphold facts and credibility.”
Mark Zuckerberg found himself in a contentious situation recently after making an erroneous statement regarding India’s 2024 general elections. During his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, while discussing worldwide governmental trust issues in the post-Covid era, Zuckerberg shared his observations about electoral patterns.
He stated, “Incumbents basically lost every single one,”. He incorrectly cited India as an instance, wrongly asserting that the Modi administration had been defeated.
“2024 was a 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 or just how the governments dealt with covid. It seems to have had this effect that’s global,” he said.