There is an old rule in politics. When you can no longer control the narrative, you go after the messenger.
Reports suggest that the Government has summoned Meta’s Global Head of Public Policy and an Instagram official after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post was briefly removed from Facebook. It is also being reported that the Government is unhappy because anti government content is allegedly receiving greater traction.
The irony is striking.
For years, the Opposition accused Meta of favouring the BJP and the Modi government. Meta denied those allegations. Today, if these reports are accurate, it is the Government that appears dissatisfied with the platform.
That raises an important question. Has the algorithm changed, or has public sentiment changed?
Governments that are confident of public support rarely feel threatened by criticism. They answer it. Governments that begin to worry about declining popularity often stop debating the message and start questioning the messenger.
If this dispute escalates, it would not be unusual to see the debate shift from Meta’s actions to Meta’s motives. We have seen this pattern before. When institutions, journalists, universities, civil society groups, or technology platforms stop reinforcing the preferred narrative, they often become the target instead of the criticism they carry.
In a democracy, governments are elected to answer questions, not to intimidate those who provide the platform on which those questions are asked. A government secure in its mandate has nothing to fear from an algorithm. It only has to fear the verdict of the people.
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