Mark Zuckerberg promises PM Narendra Modi mobile app for Clean India

NEW DELHI: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the firm would create and launch a mobile application devoted to Clean India, during a conversation where they discussed the PM’s pet projects such as Digital India and his hopes to use the networking site’s use for social causes and prevent its misuse by terror outfits.

Zuckerberg told the Prime Minister that he is extremely excited about the government’s Digital India initiative. Modi, a prolific user of social media platforms with nearly 7 million followers on Twitter and around 23 million people following him on Facebook, has asked Zuckerberg to identify domains of the program that it can get involved in and work with the government.

The Prime Minister also expressed some concerns about social media, especially the use of such platforms by terrorist elements to recruit new members. “This is unfortunate and we need to think of the role social media can play to stop terror,” the PM said.

Taking forward Facebook’s interaction with the Modi government, initiated this July by its COO Sheryl Sandberg, Zuckerberg reiterated Facebook’s interest in working with the government on providing health and education services to the people Facebook will help in the creation of the Clean India Mobile App and it would be launched soon. This would give a strong impetus to the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Facebook boss told Modi.

Modi also urged Facebook to promote India’s rich tourism potential and look at how to enhance internet literacy along with connectivity, an official statement from the PMO said.