Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has raised concerns over increasing online censorship in India, saying investigative reports on alleged police violence, shootings in Indian-administered Kashmir and the displacement of communities for a Google data centre project have been rapidly removed from social media following requests from authorities.
According to an RSF report, new regulations introduced in February reduced the time available to social media platforms to remove flagged content from 36 hours to just three hours.
The organisation warned that the shorter deadline leaves platforms with insufficient time to thoroughly assess removal requests before taking down content.
The Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), a New Delhi-based organisation working to protect digital rights, told RSF that 40 cases involving content removal or the blocking of accounts belonging to journalists and media organisations had been recorded in 2026.
However, the organisation noted that media reports indicated the actual number of removals could be considerably higher than the documented cases.
According to data reviewed by The Indian Express, Indian authorities issued nearly 200,000 content removal orders through the government’s Sahyog portal between March and July. This compared with 2,312 orders issued between October 2024 and October 2025.
Launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs in October 2024, the portal enables law enforcement agencies to request the removal of online content from digital platforms. The system has also helped automate the process of taking down content.
The SFLC said journalists were finding it increasingly difficult to challenge these restrictions because of a lack of transparency regarding which authorities initiated removal requests, the legal provisions invoked and the grounds for enforcement.
RSF urged the Indian government to stop arbitrary content removal requests targeting news organisations and journalists. It also called for the legal basis of each restriction to be made public and for journalistic content to undergo an independent assessment before any action is taken.
The organisation further called on Meta, X and other social media platforms to ensure that requests involving journalists or media outlets are subjected to human and legal review before enforcement.
RSF also highlighted the blocking of accounts belonging to Kashmiri media outlets and marginalised communities in February, particularly in connection with content concerning alleged police violence.
Meta blocked the Facebook and Instagram accounts of three prominent Kashmiri media organisations Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir and Kashmir Life without publicly disclosing the reasons for the action.
The restrictions have added to concerns over press freedom and the ability of journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir to report on sensitive issues.
