Meta removes bulk of anti-Modi posts on IT Ministry orders
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Delhi: Meta has deleted a batch of posts criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi on instructions from India's IT Ministry, amid accusations of intolerance to dissent. From March 2024 to June 2025, the company removed 1,400 such posts and accounts, with users slamming the unannounced blocks as "covert censorship."
The fresh push aims to curb social media content attacking central government policies. As protests grew over the Centre's UGC rules stance, the IT Ministry targeted Prime Ministerial criticism, prompting Instagram, X and others to swiftly delete posts.
Orders covered cartoons, animations and foreign policy jibes mocking Modi. About 10 accounts critiquing the Iran-Israel war and cooking gas crisis were shadowbanned without reason; cartoonist A.I. Satheesh Acharya's works vanished alongside nine Congress posts and videos by Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia.
Meta disclosed a threefold rise in 2025 government takedown requests versus prior years. Officials justified the moves as blocking fake AI content, following last month's amendments to 2021 IT Rules to rein in platforms – a step drawing alarm from the Internet Freedom Foundation.