Govt’s on-line content material blocking orders double to 24,000 in a 12 months, over half on X | India Information
The variety of on-line content material blocking orders handed by the Ministry of Electronics and Data Expertise (MeitY) has doubled prior to now one 12 months, with authorities pointing to the surge of deep fakes on social media in addition to objectionable posts and content material generated by Synthetic Intelligence on quite a lot of platforms.
Officers within the Ministry mentioned that at the moment, roughly 60% of orders for blocking URLs have been for content material on X (previously Twitter); 25% for Fb and Instagram; and 5% for YouTube.
Whereas Parliament had, in 2023, been knowledgeable that a mean of 6,000 blocking orders have been being handed by MeitY, senior officers advised The Indian Categorical that this quantity elevated to round 12,600 in 2024 and 24,300 in 2025, each until December.
Requests to MeitY for blocking on-line content material and subsequent blocking orders peaked throughout Operation Sindoor in Might 2025 and has remained “very excessive” ever since. Sources mentioned greater than half the requests and complaints got here from nodal officers within the Ministry of Residence Affairs and Ministry of Exterior Affairs, and the remaining from different Ministries, Departments and people.
Based on sources, a number of of those blocking orders have been for taking down URLs of Instagram, Fb and YouTube posts of political events and politicians. Some politicians have additionally complained to the Residence Ministry or MeitY about faux social media posts utilizing their title and pictures.
The newest “high-profile” grievance to the Residence Ministry and MeitY got here earlier this month from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Chatting with The Indian Categorical, Tharoor mentioned deep faux movies of him had emerged. “It was greatest that I put up my complaints in writing. The faux content material was apparently being generated from Pakistan and I’m advised, at the least in India the faux content material has been blocked,” he mentioned.
The Congress MP had referred to the incident in an April 9 publish on X. He wrote, “There are an alarming variety of deepfake movies circulating of me, with convincing-sounding AI generated voice-overs over real footage of outdated interviews, having ‘me’ saying issues I’ve by no means mentioned. Upset that so many on social media are believing these lies and issuing baseless feedback attacking me for purported views that I’ve not expressed…”
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The blocking orders are handed underneath provisions of Part 69A of the Data Expertise Act 2000, which empowers the Authorities to dam public entry to laptop sources on any of those 5 grounds: preserve the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity; safeguard its defence and safety; preserve pleasant relations with international states; protect public order; and examine offences.
Much like guidelines and tips for the interception of digital communications, Part 69A stipulates the process earlier than a ultimate blocking order will be handed:
lMeitY has a Designated Officer to move the “Blocking Committee”. The Committee consists of representatives, or “nodal officers”, from the Ministries of Regulation and Justice, Residence and Data and Broadcasting, and the Indian Pc Emergency Response Workforce (CERT-In), as its members, both of Joint Secretary rank or above.
lEach blocking order handed by the Committee wants ultimate approval of the Secretary, MeitY.
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Officers advised The Indian Categorical that for every sitting, largely digital, of the “Blocking Committee”, officers from world social media corporations comparable to Meta in addition to xAI (owned by Elon Musk) are current to current their views on a case-by-case foundation.
What’s essential, they mentioned, is that the “Blocking Committee” earlier used to convene largely as soon as per week however now has digital sittings a number of instances per week.
Part 69A additionally has an “emergency” clause whereby the Designated Officer has to place down in writing as to why the “interim measure” of issuing an pressing blocking order was being issued with out the sitting of the Committee. The order then must be accredited by the Committee inside 48 hours.
A senior official mentioned the “interim” measure was additionally being more and more used. “With the explosion of AI posts and the flood of deep fakes, we at the moment are incessantly issuing blocking orders underneath the emergency clause. A number of requests additionally come to us from state governments for pressing intervention when a state of affairs arises…,” the official mentioned.
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Data on the extent of blocking of “objectionable” URLs has been coming in bits and items, with the Authorities refraining from offering the whole knowledge even to Parliament and by way of RTI. In 2023, the then IT Minister of State Rajeev Chandrashekhar knowledgeable Parliament that his Ministry had blocked 36,838 URLs between January 2018 and October 2023, roughly 6,000 a 12 months.
On March 18 this 12 months, The Indian Categorical reported that inter-Ministerial discussions have been on for the Authorities to permit 4 different Ministries, particularly Residence Affairs, Exterior Affairs, Defence, and Data and Broadcasting, to additionally subject blocking orders to social media platforms along with MeitY underneath Part 69A of the IT Act.
