India expands censorship powers, lets lower officials demand takedowns

A new censorship mechanism allows even district-level officers to demand social media firms pull down posts.

New Delhi, India — On February 15, thousands of men, women and children scrambled to board trains at New Delhi railway station, bound for the pilgrimage city of Prayagraj, which was playing host to the Kumbh Mela festival, one of Hinduism’s holiest gatherings.

A deadly stampede followed, and 18 people died.

Yet, in the aftermath, India’s Ministry of Railways did not only focus on rescue efforts, investigations into crowd management and compensation for families of victims. It had another concern, too: fighting social media posts that criticised the government over the incident.

The ministry used a government platform known as Sahyog to issue notices to a range of social media companies, including Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, demanding they pull down posts that the Indian government deemed detrimental to law and order. Most platforms complied: the government has threatened that those who do not, risk losing what is known as their “intermediary immunity” status, which shields them from legal liability for the content posted on their sites.

Until late last year, such takedown notices were issued solely by two federal ministries: the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (IT), and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B).