India limits internet content takedown powers to few officials

New rules limit takedown orders to senior bureaucrats, police; X opposed India's policy, lost legal challenge; critics say process still burdensome, affects free speech

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The Indian government has reduced the number of officials who can order content to be taken down from the internet, a move that follows a bitter legal battle with Elon Musk's X that centered around a contentious policy.

X, Musk's social media platform, had been in opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2023 decision to police the internet by allowing thousands of officials to file takedown orders.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday announced that any intimation to social media platforms for the removal of unlawful information can now only be issued by a senior officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary equivalent, or, where such rank is not appointed, a Director or an officer equivalent in rank.

In the case of police authorities, only an officer not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), specially authorised, can issue the intimation.

The new rules will come into effect from November 1, 2025.

This replaces the existing procedure of junior officials such as sub inspectors and assistant sub inspectors passing orders to remove content from social media platforms.