On July 26, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party called off its 36-day agitation, journalist Yaqut Ali uploaded an interview with Vijeta Dahiya, the outfit’s former spokesperson, on his Instagram account. The two discussed the trolling of Sonam Wangchuk. Neither said anything about the prime minister, abusive or otherwise.

Within minutes, the video could no longer be seen in India.

Ali reposted it from a second handle, Notyaqut, linking it to his main account through an Instagram collaboration. That copy was blocked too. He tried a third time without hashtags. It survived seven or eight hours before it went the same way. The notice told him the post was unavailable in India under the Information Technology Act.

This came amid a Delhi Police operation in which social media platforms are being told to remove posts carrying purportedly objectionable content about the prime minister. Its social media team, police say, is scanning platforms and has so far flagged 450 posts containing deepfake or AI-generated material.

The operation follows a wider contest over the protest’s online narrative. For weeks, the CJP had outmanoeuvred the BJP on Instagram with decentralised, creator-driven content, forcing the government to respond in the same idiom. By the end, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed young audiences through a selfie-style video.

The PM posted more selfie videos, one of which was briefly blocked by Meta on Facebook. Meta has apologised to the government, with the company attributing the removal to a technical glitch, suggest media reports.

The clamour around the PM’s video has at the moment drowned out restrictions faced in India by several other posts which contained nothing crude or abusive, with little clarity on the process followed.

Jyoti Yadav, another creator, saw videos blocked across three weeks. On July 5, a conversation with an AISA member about the hunger strike. On July 23, an interview with AAP’s Sanjay Singh on the paper leak. On July 25, a discussion with Bhim Army members, again on the paper leak. Each of the three revisited claims made during earlier........

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