New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- Two days after a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taken down temporarily by Facebook, members of India's parliamentary standing committee on communications and information technology were notified of an impending meeting with Meta Platforms Inc., the social media platform's parent company. The meeting was innocuously titled 'Social and digital platforms and their regulation'. But the discussions that played out over two hours on Monday, 3 August were far from regular.

Although the committee represented a smorgasbord of political divisions, most of the lawmakers in attendance closed ranks to question Meta over the temporary removal of Modi's Facebook video, according to seven officials and executives ...