The Central government has called Meta Platforms for a second round of discussions after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video message was briefly unavailable on Facebook last week. Officials have asked the company's senior leadership to explain the circumstances that led to the incident.

Speaking on Thursday, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S. Krishnan said the government wanted answers from Meta's top management regarding the temporary restriction of the Prime Minister's post. However, he did not disclose the names or designations of the executives expected to appear.

According to Krishnan, Meta has informed the government that it has introduced additional safeguards for accounts belonging to high-profile public personalities to ensure such incidents are not repeated.

The latest move follows an earlier notice issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which had treated the temporary removal of the Prime Minister's content as a matter of concern and sought an explanation from the company.

Meta calls it an accidental removal

The controversy began after a video of Prime Minister Modi, uploaded on Instagram and later shared on Facebook, became temporarily inaccessible on Facebook before being restored.

Meta had apologised soon after the incident, stating that the content was removed unintentionally because of a technical error. The company clarified that the video was restored as soon as the mistake was identified.

As of Thursday, Meta India had not issued any fresh response regarding the government's latest summons.

Video addressed students amid NEET controversy

The video was released late on July 23 and marked the Prime Minister's first direct message to students during the nationwide agitation over the alleged NEET-UG paper leak.

In his address, Modi acknowledged the concerns of students and parents, assuring them that the government had acted quickly to prevent disruption to the academic calendar. He also said those responsible for the examination irregularities had been arrested and that authorities had ensured examinations for nearly 22 lakh candidates were conducted without unnecessary delay.

The message came at a time when protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were intensifying, with demonstrators demanding accountability over the examination controversy and the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later stepped down.

Video continued to gain massive reach

Although the clip was briefly restricted on Facebook, it continued to attract enormous engagement on Instagram. BJP leaders and supporters had criticised Meta over the temporary removal, with several alleging that the platform had censored the Prime Minister's message.

The video eventually crossed 404 million views on Instagram after already recording over 303 million views within the first 24 hours. Following the response, the Prime Minister shared another video thanking young people for their feedback and expressing his intention to continue engaging with them through social media.