New Delhi: Government agencies have issued nearly 1.95 lakh orders to social media companies to block or remove posts and other online content in the months from March to July, with Instagram, Facebook and YouTube among the major platforms receiving the directives. The sharp rise has placed growing scrutiny on the Centre’s use of its content-blocking mechanism.
The orders were issued through the Union Home Ministry’s Sahayog portal, which brings requests from central and state agencies onto a single platform. The current pace works out to an average of about 1,275 orders a day, or roughly one every 68 seconds, compared with only around six orders a day in earlier years.
Instagram accounted for about one lakh of the orders, while Facebook received around 80,000. YouTube was issued approximately 15,000 directives. Nearly three-fourths of the total orders went to Meta-operated platforms, reflecting the extent to which Instagram and Facebook have become targets of government requests for content removal.
The surge coincided with intense student protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and demonstrations elsewhere. Government policies, political discussions and content linked to student movements were also among the material targeted, according to the information cited. Since a single order can cover hundreds of accounts or posts carrying similar content, the actual volume of material removed could be substantially higher than the number of orders.
Meta had directly integrated its systems with the Sahayog portal to speed up implementation. Flagged material uploaded through the portal could consequently be removed automatically without individual human review, a process that has reportedly resulted in mistakes and the subsequent restoration or acknowledgement of content removed in error.