‘Don’t bow down to our PM...’: Arvind Kejriwal alleges Meta restricted his account in India

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday claimed that his Meta account had been restricted in India and questioned the company over the alleged lack of transparency and response.

In a post on X, Kejriwal said he had made verbal inquiries with Meta's India office but was not given any explanation for the restriction or guidance on how it could be lifted.

"Why have you restricted my account? Verbal enquiries at your India office revealed that my account has been restricted in India and is unavailable in India. Why? No one in your office is giving any reasons. No one is suggesting how restrictions can be removed. All emails written have elicited no response other than routine acknowledgement."

Calling the company's response "pretty bad service," the former Delhi chief minister also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Thats pretty bad service."

"Don’t bow down to our Prime Minister so much. Else he will allow u to run only his own account in India."

Meta has not immediately responded publicly to Kejriwal's allegations. The development came a day after Meta reportedly apologised for the temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post as well as for failures ranging from child sexual abuse content to deepfakes.

While Meta's global affairs head Joel Kaplan, who flew in from the US for meetings with Indian officials, in a written statement said he "apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post", government sources, who refused to be identified, said the apology came from company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Speaking to PTI, Government sources said Meta global officials have been asked to stay back for another round of questioning on Thursday, when IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will meet the company's global executives once again. The meeting will also include executives from Meta's technical team.

Kaplan, who served in the administration of George W Bush, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, before joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2011, was summoned by the Indian government to explain temporarily removing Modi's July 23 Facebook post, in which he addressed students and promised stringent action against examination paper leaks. He first met IT Secretary S Krishnan, followed by a meeting with Vaishnaw.