The Crossbill News Desk
Over the past year, nearly one-third of the 66 takedown notices issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to X, formerly Twitter, have directed the platform to remove content related to Union Ministers and Central government agencies, The Hindu has reported.
According to court records accessed by the newspaper from the Delhi and Karnataka High Courts, a significant portion of these warnings pertained to posts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, his son and ICC chairman Jay Shah, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
X is not the only platform facing such actions. Over the past year, the Modi government has also issued takedown notices to other social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reportedly seeking the removal of over 1.1 lakh pieces of content.
The flagged content fell under categories such as deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, financial fraud, and “misleading and false information,” affecting posts from political parties, news organizations, and individuals in India and abroad.
X Corp, the company behind the Elon Musk-led platform, had challenged the government's content removal orders in the Karnataka High Court, particularly questioning the use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The company also sought legal protection for not using SAHYOG, an I4C portal designed to manage such takedown directives, which X described as a “censorship portal.”
However, during the hearing, the Union government argued that X had no legal standing to contest the removal of user content and warned that resistance to takedown orders could lead to the platform losing its immunity from legal consequences under Indian law.
The government maintained that notices issued under Section 79(3)(b) were not outright blocking directives but rather served as warnings that social media firms would be held liable alongside users if the flagged posts were challenged in court.
According to court records accessed by the newspaper from the Delhi and Karnataka High Courts, a significant portion of these warnings pertained to posts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, his son and ICC chairman Jay Shah, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
X is not the only platform facing such actions. Over the past year, the Modi government has also issued takedown notices to other social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reportedly seeking the removal of over 1.1 lakh pieces of content.
The flagged content fell under categories such as deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, financial fraud, and “misleading and false information,” affecting posts from political parties, news organizations, and individuals in India and abroad.
X Corp, the company behind the Elon Musk-led platform, had challenged the government's content removal orders in the Karnataka High Court, particularly questioning the use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The company also sought legal protection for not using SAHYOG, an I4C portal designed to manage such takedown directives, which X described as a “censorship portal.”
However, during the hearing, the Union government argued that X had no legal standing to contest the removal of user content and warned that resistance to takedown orders could lead to the platform losing its immunity from legal consequences under Indian law.
The government maintained that notices issued under Section 79(3)(b) were not outright blocking directives but rather served as warnings that social media firms would be held liable alongside users if the flagged posts were challenged in court.
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