New Delhi: The Union government is invoking Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to block multiple social media posts that appear to have one thing in common: they mock, lampoon or are otherwise sharply critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, mannerisms — and evasions.

The recent spurt of takedowns – coming in the wake of the prime minister’s awkwardly times visit to Israel and his even more controversial silence over the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the assassination of its leader and the US sinking of an Iranian naval ship not far from India – coincide with a broader wave of blocking orders over the past month, which users report also targeted accounts criticising the University Grants Commission’s equity regulations. Because the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issues these directives under strict confidentiality, evidence of the censorship has emerged directly from users publishing the takedown notices they were provided by X.

Comprehensive statistics are not available due to this confidentiality. X informs users when their posts are affected but no longer publishes  comprehensive transparency reports of government takedowns. The Hindu reviewed data from Meta from January to June 2025 – the most recent publicly available period – and found that Instagram and Facebook content deleted in response to government orders for those six months was up 300% compared to deletions ordered for the same period in 2023.

However, anecdotal evidence and lists compiled by concerned persons on social media like @zerix_v suggest the censorship trend line has climbed up dramatically since then.

On March 10, 2026, cartoonist Satish Acharya disclosed that X withheld two of his cartoons depicting India-Iran relations and the United States. The first cartoon, titled “India-Iran dosti is as old as history!”, depicted Modi blindfolded alongside a body labelled “Killed by USA & Israel”. The second showed a figure wearing a US flag hat with the caption, “Iran’s Irisdena ship returning from naval exercise in India destroyed by US submarine”.

Cartoons by Satish Acharya ordered deleted by the Modi government

“Though this government has lots of ‘tejaswi log’ [brilliant people], let me share a pro-tip,” Acharya stated. “My experience for the last 15 years on social media teaches me that whenever any government or politician tries to stop a cartoon by force, that cartoon normally reaches 10 times more readers.”

A video posted by @Doc_RGM mocking Modi for not wanting to share a copy of his degrees with the........

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