Criticism, satire of PM, UGC regulations target of government takedowns on X, Instagram

Government takedowns on social media target criticism and satire of PM Modi amid rising content removal in India.

The Union Government has issued a spate of takedown orders for posts satirising, criticising and mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accounts critical of the government in response to the UGC Equity Regulations on X and Instagram. Over the last month, posts that were taken down on X include a reference by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia to a viral mistranscription of a Sanskrit subhashita by Mr. Modi; criticism of the targeting of minorities in India; and two animated satirical cartoons featuring the Prime Minister. 

The Hindu counted dozens of such posts in a review of takedown orders posted by affected users, but comprehensive statistics are not available, as these orders are confidential. Social media firms comply with takedown orders by making posts invisible in India, while they remain available in other countries. Last year, for instance, many (but not all) of the accounts and posts that were “withheld” this way in India were from accounts operated from other countries, or posting footage targeted by the Ministry of Railways.

The most up-to-date takedown stats from Meta show that the Instagram and Facebook parent took down three times as much content in response to government orders in January–June 2025 than in the same period in 2023. This number does not include content in India that was also taken down globally due to community standards violations. X does not publish transparency reports for government takedowns.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting did not respond to questions from The Hindu on a sample of these takedown notices. Meta and X did not respond to a request for comment.

Posts that feature Mr. Modi prominently have been targeted with persistent takedown orders. When The Wire put out two satirical music videos featuring Mr. Modi, they were targeted with takedown notices on both X and Meta’s Instagram, and when the site’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan reposted the second cartoon, the repost was also taken down.

The Congress said satirical posts by the party that were AI-generated (and duly labelled as such, as required by the IT Rules, 2021’s latest amendment), were taken down. Nine posts were taken down in all, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said on February 14.