New Delhi: Two days after it asked all social media platforms to exercise “enhanced diligence” over content linked to “ongoing public events”, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a second advisory, this time addressed only to Meta, asking the company to change how Facebook and Instagram recommend content, industry sources told ThePrint.
The advisory, dated 10 October, asked Meta to ensure its recommendation systems “do not result in disproportionate exposure of users to a single or limited set of narratives”. It was also asked to “endeavour to provide appropriate diversity of relevant and credible information”.
The advisory was issued on the day the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition groups called for a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
ThePrint reached MeitY and Meta for comment via text but had not recieved any response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The first advisory, dated 8 October, went to all social media intermediaries and dealt with what content stays up, asking platforms to “label or add context” to misleading content and to prioritise complaints from “authorised Government agencies”.
The second advisory, dated 10 October, went to one company and dealt with distribution: how Meta’s algorithms rank and recommend content, and which narratives users see.
It said content on “public-order and law-and-order situations” was being “prominently displayed and recommended to users”, and that such content, “when presented without adequate context or disproportionately amplified”, may contribute to “public confusion, apprehension and disturbance of public order”.
The second advisory asked Meta to exercise “enhanced diligence” during “periods of heightened public-order sensitivity”, and flag “unverified or misleading claims regarding the imposition of emergency, restrictions, police action or other official measures”.
Meta was also asked to review its ranking systems so such content is not “repeatedly recommended to users”, add context to visuals of public events, and furnish “information or assistance” to law enforcement. It was urged to act “with immediate effect” and report back to the ministry.
The advisory cited the IT Act, 2000 and the IT Rules, 2021, neither of which contains provisions on recommendation systems.
In a statement Monday, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) called for both advisories to be withdrawn, saying MeitY is not empowered to issue them under any statutory provision. It described the October 10 advisory, “issued on the day of a police crackdown and kept from the public”, as “a censorship directive in all but name”, and asked Meta to disclose every takedown, account restriction and act of downranking carried out under it.
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Accounts, posts restricted
Between 1 and 18 October, a tracker maintained by digital rights group SFLC.in recorded 181 instances of posts, pages and accounts restricted in India, covering 382 items.
Of these, 68 were recorded on 10 and 11 October, and 94 relate to the protests, the CJP or the demand for the CEC’s resignation. In 84 cases, the notice said the content had been restricted “through an automated system” under the IT Rules; in nine, it cited Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act.
The Instagram account of Molitics India was withheld in India on 10 October. “This is our punishment—for bringing the news to you, for reporting,” its editor-in-chief Neeraj Jha said in a video statement on X. The Instagram account of Journo Mirror was also withheld on 13 October.
On 11 October, a Mathrubhumi English reel showing police detaining a woman protester was restricted after crossing 1.1 crore views, citing “a notice from the Government of India/Law Enforcement”. Accounts or posts of independent journalists Shubhangi Dasgupta, Muskan Agrawal and Shyam Meera Singh were also restricted.
At least 17 users reported that posts were restricted on 10 and 11 October for sharing a photograph of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi holding the national flag at the protest. Cartoons by Satish Acharya and Manjul on the Election Commission, too, were restricted between 14 and 17 October.
Geo Blocked in India, an X account that posts content withheld in India, flagged the restriction of the Instagram account of Fridays For Future India on 13 October, and an X post by @ApoorvJaipur seeking the CEC’s resignation, withheld under Section 69A.
In 2026 so far, the tracker has recorded 554 instances. In May, for instance, the CJP’s X account was withheld in India hours after its Instagram following overtook the BJP’s.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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