India flags 3L URLs for illegal content in 5 months
What's the story
The Indian government has flagged nearly three lakh URLs for removal from social media and online platforms between March and July 2026. The majority of these requests, over 80%, came from state governments. The data comes as India revises its content takedown rules, allowing faster removal of illegal content.
Request breakdown
Majority requests came from state governments
Out of the nearly three lakh flagged URLs, state governments accounted for around 82% or 2.44 lakh.
The remaining requests came from other authorities, including the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which flagged some 51,000 URLs.
Most of the content identified by the agency was related to cybercrime, critical infrastructure threats, and investment frauds.
Notice protocol
Not all takedown requests submitted at will, says government
The government has clarified that not all removal requests are submitted at will by government employees.
Only officers authorized by the respective Union ministry or state government can initiate action against content deemed unlawful.
These authorities are also expected to review such notices periodically, as part of the government's defense of its system amid questions over how quickly platforms are expected to act on official requests and the processes used to identify content for removal.
Automation concerns
Amendment of IT rules
The latest data comes after the February amendment of the Information Technology Intermediary Rules, 2021, which cut down the response time for certain takedown directions from 36 hours to three.
This has drawn scrutiny, especially after reports that Meta had been using automated systems to handle some government requests for content removal.
The PIB Fact Check unit clarified that claims suggesting a new API arrangement with Meta as part of these amendments were misleading.