By Munsif Vengattil
NEW DELHI, July 31 (Reuters) – Police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have registered a case against the head of Meta India over multiple videos posted on the company’s Facebook platform that depicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an “abusive manner,” a senior police officer said on Friday.
Police are preparing to send a notice to Meta Platforms regarding the case, which had not been issued as of Friday, said V Aravind Babu, deputy commissioner of police for cyber crimes in Hyderabad.
Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Friday.
The case adds to a string of tensions between Meta and Modi’s government over content tied to the prime minister. India’s IT ministry summoned Meta executives this week after Facebook briefly restricted a Modi post last week, with a top official saying the government wanted Meta to explain the matter at the highest level.
A Meta spokesperson said at the time that the post, which was Modi’s first where he addressed massive student protests that forced the resignation of the education minister, had been blocked inadvertently.
Modi has also come in for a barrage of online criticism, jokes and ridicule by protesters in recent weeks.
India is Facebook’s biggest market by users.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil; Writing by Hritam Mukherjee; Editing by Tom Hogue and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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