Vital journalism content - such as reports on lead-bullet shootings in Kashmir, the forced displacement of communities due to a Google data centre project and a student's account of alleged police violence - is being taken off social media at the authorities' request at an extremely fast pace. In February 2026, new rules came into force that cut the time limit granted to social media platforms to remove reported content from 36 hours to just three hours. This shorter timeframe leaves platforms little time to carry out a thorough review of requests before removing the content.

"In 2026, there were 40 instances of content takedown and blocking of accounts held by journalists or media organizations.," the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), a Delhi-based organisation that works to defend online freedoms, told RSF. " However, media reports suggest that the actual number of such content removals might be much higher than recorded." In total, across all types of content - journalistic and non-journalistic - the government issued nearly 200,000 removal orders, according to data consulted by the Indian Express. The orders were transmitted via the Sahyog government portal between March and July 2026, compared with just 2,312 between October 2024 and October 2025.

Launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs in October 2024, the Sahyog portal enables law enforcement agencies to request the immediate removal of online content from digital platforms and has helped to automate these removals. To meet the new time-limit requirements, Meta has integrated an API (application programming interface) with Sahyog. According to reports in The Indian Express, this direct connection enables removal requests submitted by the authorities via the portal to be automatically processed on Meta's platforms, without prior review by a member of staff.

The removal of content on social media typically occurs following notifications issued underSection 79(3)(b) orSection 69A of the Information Technology Act. However, the removal notices sent to the authors of the content in question provide limited details on the reasons why the content is blocked. "Journalists find it increasingly difficult to challenge these restrictions, owing to lack of transparency about which authority initiated a takedown, under which legal provision and the basis for enforcing the same," emphasised the SFLC.

Dozens of takedown requests between February and September 2026:

February: The Wire's Instagram account temporarily blocked

On 9 February, the Instagram account of Delhi-based news site The Wire, which counts over1.3 million followers, was blocked in India for around two hours after it posted an animated cartoon critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The account was eventually restored, but the post in question remains inaccessible on Instagram and Facebook. It was also blocked on X.

March: Accounts of Kashmiri media outlets and marginalised communities blocked, notably due to content on police violence

Meta blocked the Facebook and Instagram accounts of three major Kashmiri media outlets - Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir and Kashmir Life (1.8 million followers on Facebook and nearly 200,000 on Instagram) - without publicly explaining the reasons for these measures.

The Facebook page of the news platform Molitics, which has more than 450,000 followers, was also blocked, as was a backup page created by the outlet.

Meta also removed the official Facebook page of National Dastak, a media organisation that covers issues relating to Dalits (people formerly considered "untouchables" in the Indian caste system), tribal communities and other marginalised groups.

The Facebook page of the digital news outlet 4PM News Network - which has nearly 1.7 million followers - was also blocked in India. The measure is reported to have been taken on grounds of "national security" and "public order".

Meanwhile, the media outlet PeekTV received a takedown notice regarding a video posted on X in which a student spoke about police violence during protests.

The South African journalist Azad Essa, who has extensively covered relations between India and Israel, also had his X account suspended in India on government orders.

To date, the Facebook pages of Molitics India and National Dastak, as well as Azad Essa's X account, remain inaccessible.

May: an environmental report blocked

On 22 May, Meta blocked an Instagram video by the Environmental Reporting Collective in India. The video focused on Google's proposed data centre in Visakhapatnam, developed in partnership with the Adani Group. The report focused in particular on the forced displacement of local Dalit communities. It had garnered more than 2.6 million views before being blocked. The video was restored on 10 September after a legal intervention.

July: content related to student protests removed

In July, several pieces of content relating to student protests in New Delhi were made inaccessible in India. The freelance journalist Sadhika Tiwari noted that a video she had posted, showing a student in tears claiming to have been subjected to police violence, had been blocked on X in India and remains inaccessible. The notification displayed by the platform stated that the content had been restricted following a request from the government or law enforcement agencies, pursuant to Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act.

An interview conducted by the independent journalist Yaqut Ali with a former spokesperson for the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) was also blocked three times on Instagram and is still inaccessible today.

Two videos covering the protests, published on 21 and 23 July by the independent media outlet Maktoob Media, were blocked by Meta on Instagram.

The Delhi-based co-founder of Peek TV, Priyanshi Sharma, stated on X that an interview conducted on 4 August with a protester, claiming they had received threatening comments online, has been removed from the independent media outlet's Instagram page. The video has since been reposted on X.

August: posts about victims of pellet gun in Kashmir blocked

In early August, Instagram blocked several posts in India by the news outlet Scroll focusing on the victims of pellet gun in Kashmir. Since 2010, Indian security forces have been using pellet guns and other weapons to suppress protesters in the region. According to Scroll, this was the fourth time its posts had been blocked since June 2026. Content from The Wire on the same subject, published on Facebook and Instagram, was also made inaccessible in India.

An article from The Hindu on the victims of grenade attacks in Kashmir was also blocked by Meta on Instagram.

These three posts remain inaccessible to users in India to this day.

September: censorship of reports on a health crisis, a destroyed mosque and civilians killed in a protest

On 6 September, the Instagram accounts of three independent journalists, Monika Singh, Bindu Gurjar and Lokbhadra Singh, were suspended following the publication of a report on a health crisis affecting an Adivasi (indigenous) community in Madhya Pradesh. The three accounts have since been reactivated.

Following a government request, Instagram also blocked a report by Article 14 in India on the civilians killed during protests calling for Ladakh - now a Union Territory - to be granted state status.

On X, a post by the editor-in-chief of The Wire, Seema Chisti, that shared an articleo n the demolition of a 150-year-old mosque, was removed following a request from the Indian police. The post was eventually restored.

Most recently, Instagram blocked access to the account of cartoonist Satish Acharya in India following a request by the government. The cartoonist Manjul also reported that one of his cartoons had been restricted by the social media platform on 27 September, following a similar government request. Both incidents involved political cartoons critical of public institutions.