WhatsApp Leads 14C Notices; X for Political Content, Says Data Submitted to K'taka HC

The Union home ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) issued 426 Section 79(3)(b) notices under the Information Technology Act targeting 110,718 links, accounts, and groups between March 20, 2024 and March 20 this year, with striking variations in both volume and content types across platforms.

- Aditi Agrawal

NEW DELHI:

The information, submitted by the central government to the Karnataka high court where it argued that Section 79(3)(b) is not a blocking provision but rather a mechanism to notify intermediaries of unlawful content, is the first detailed look at the scale of state-led content moderation outside a different legal framework under Section 69A, but without the safeguards built into the latter provision. The case involves X suing the government so that it cannot be forced to join the Sahyog portal, which the American company contends is a "censorship portal". The Centre, however, said the portal will streamline notification of unlawful content by the state.

According to the data, seen by HT, WhatsApp faced the highest volume of takedowns with 78 notices affecting 83,673 accounts and groups—75% of all content targeted—primarily for trading scams, law enforcement impersonation, and offensive content. Instagram followed with 73 notices targeting 22,150 URLs and accounts for deepfakes, investment scams, and obscene content.