Indian police file case against Meta India head over Modi posts

Hyderabad police registered a case against Meta India head Arun Srinivas over Facebook videos depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an abusive manner, pushing Meta deeper into India’s clash with global platforms over political speech. Police were also preparing to send a notice to Meta Platforms in connection with the case.

The move came just days after India summoned Meta executives after Facebook briefly restricted a video post by Modi. A Meta spokesperson said the post had been blocked inadvertently, and Meta later said the removal was the result of a technical glitch and apologized. The earlier summons was directed at Meta’s global head of public policy, underscoring how quickly a content-moderation dispute can move from a platform decision to government scrutiny.

Taken together, the Hyderabad case and the summons showed escalating pressure on Meta in one of its most important markets. The company faces close attention from Indian authorities over how its platforms handle material tied to Modi, whose political profile makes moderation decisions especially sensitive. By moving against a senior local executive in Hyderabad, police signaled that platform accountability in India can extend beyond company policy teams and into local leadership.

The case also matters for other foreign tech companies operating in India. If police complaints and notices become a routine response to politically charged posts, executives on the ground may face greater legal exposure when disputes erupt over speech, misinformation or perceived insults to public officials. That creates added pressure on platforms to police content more aggressively in politically sensitive cases, especially when posts involve Modi or the governing party.

Meta is already under broader regulatory strain in India. Reuters has separately reported that the company faced an Indian antitrust ruling over WhatsApp data-sharing, a reminder that Meta’s problems in the country are not limited to speech moderation. The latest action in Hyderabad, filed from New Delhi and centered in southern India, adds another layer to an increasingly hostile regulatory environment for global tech firms trying to operate at scale in India while staying on the right side of officials, courts and police.