2.44 Lakh Social Media Posts Taken Down In March-July 2026: Centre's Data

Multiple government departments asked social media platforms to take down 2.44 lakh pieces of content between March and July this year, an official note said on Thursday.

The government's fact-check body run by the Press Information Bureau said that the IT Intermediaries Rules 2021 were amended in February to expedite action against unlawful content, and the takedown time was reduced to three hours from 36 hours.

"During the period from March 2026 to July 2026, around 2.98 lakh URLs were sent for takedown, out of which 2.44 lakhs were sent by states (82 per cent). Of these, 51 thousand URLs were sent by I4C in the context of cyber, infrastructure, and stock-investment scams," the PIB Fact Check account said on X.

The duration of these takedowns coincided with the widespread protests by students led by the Cockroach Janata Party on the NEET paper leak issue.

Several political leaders, social media influencers and others reported that their content was being blocked on social media platforms, mainly on Meta's Instagram.

The government's fact check unit said that the majority of the unlawful content intimated by I4C were related to transnational financial frauds, CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) and offences related to women and children in the last two years.

The details were shared by the PIB Fact Check account in response to recent reports on Meta automating content blocking to comply with the government's three-hour takedown requirement.

PIB Fact Check called the report misleading and said, "The API integration with Meta took place in 2025 at the request of Meta." The government's fact check unit said that with 600 million users in India posting up to 78,703 items every 68 seconds, it is reasonable to expect that on average, one of these items may not be lawful.

"The State and its instrumentalities cannot abdicate their responsibilities and allow free rein to lawlessness in cyberspace," PIB Fact Check said.

The fact check unit said that IT intermediaries act on intimations issued by competent authorities.

"Only authorised officers as notified by the concerned ministry or state government can send intimations for unlawful content takedown through Sahyog. All such intimations are reviewed by the concerned governments periodically," the fact check unit said.

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