The government is considering allowing more ministries, including defence, external affairs, and home affairs, to issue content takedown orders to social media platforms, sources said on Wednesday.
Inter-ministerial discussions are ongoing, government sources added, but no timeline has been given.
At present, the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) handles takedowns and content-blocking orders. Expanding the list of ministries aims to speed up action against misleading, illegal content and AI-generated deepfakes.
“Discussions are on with defence, ministry of external Affairs, and ministry of home affairs,” government sources said, reported PTI, adding that once a decision is taken, changes could be implemented through tweaks in the IT rules.
Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000, allows the Centre to block public access to online content, websites, apps, or social media posts in the interest of national security, sovereignty, and public order.
In February this year, the Centre tightened rules for platforms like YouTube and X, mandating takedowns within three hours and clear labelling of AI-generated and synthetic content.
The rules came after the growing misuse of AI to create and circulate deceptive, obscene, and fake content, including material that fabricates real-world events.
Platforms were required to embed permanent metadata or identifiers with AI content, and content illegal under the law was banned.
User grievance timelines were also shortened.
The response window was reduced to two hours for content involving private areas, full or partial nudity, or sexual acts.
The February amendment aimed to enforce faster takedowns, mandatory labelling of AI-generated content, and stronger accountability for platforms. Responsibility was placed on both social media platforms and AI tools.
The Centre has issued several takedown orders for posts on X and Instagram that criticise or mock Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
These removals include satirical cartoons of the PM and posts criticising the treatment of minorities, reported The Hindu.
Also targeted were a post by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia about “a viral mistranscription of a Sanskrit subhashita” by Modi and various accounts opposing the government's new UGC equity regulations.
To comply, social media companies often ‘geo-block’ content, making posts invisible to users in India while still viewable abroad.
Many orders have targeted accounts operated outside India or posts related to specific ministries, such as the ministry of railways.
Data from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shows the scale of the change.
Between January and June 2025, Meta removed three times as much content due to government orders compared to the same period in 2023. X does not provide transparency statistics, making it harder to track removals there.
Newslaundry reported that posts critical of the government, including cartoons, are frequent targets. For example, when The Wire released two satirical music videos featuring the PM, both X and Instagram removed them.
Even when its founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, tried to repost a cartoon, the post was taken down.
The Congress party has reported similar removals.
Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “nine AI-generated satirical posts were removed as of February 14. This happened despite the party labelling the content as AI-generated, which is a requirement under the latest updates to the 2021 IT Rules.”
Timelines under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act – covering takedown notices from law enforcement – have been shortened from 24–36 hours to just 2–3 hours.
Social media firms have limited options as they lack time to verify legality, creating a compliance challenge for Meta and X. Orders under Section 69A remain confidential, so official figures are unavailable.
X has started giving more specific notifications.
Earlier, posts were removed citing a vague “legal demand,” but recently the company has begun specifying Section 69A of the IT Act, according to The Hindu.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover, X has stopped sharing takedown data, making it hard to track censorship trends. Censorship is affecting different political viewpoints.
Recently, high-profile right-wing accounts with large followings were withheld in India without explanation.