BENGALURU/NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – In January, police in the Indian city of Satara flagged an old post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. The 2023 message, from an account with only a few hundred followers, called a senior ruling party politician “useless.”
“This post and content are likely to create serious communal tension,” inspector Jitendra Shahane wrote in a confidential takedown notice to X.
The post—still online today—is one of hundreds cited in a lawsuit X filed in March against India’s government, challenging what it calls a sweeping and unconstitutional crackdown on online speech under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Since 2023, India has expanded its online policing powers, enabling far more officials to issue takedown orders directly to tech companies through a government-run portal launched last October.
X argues that these measures violate free speech by allowing numerous agencies and thousands of police officers to silence legitimate criticism of public officials. India counters that its approach is necessary to curb unlawful content and maintain accountability online, adding that other tech giants like Meta and Google support its actions—though both firms declined to comment.
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has faced similar disputes in the United States, Brazil, and Australia. But his legal fight with Modi’s government in Karnataka High Court takes aim at the entire framework of India’s tightened censorship regime—despite India being one of X’s largest markets. Musk has previously called the country “more promising than any large country in the world” and said Modi urged him to invest there.
A Reuters review of 2,500 pages of confidential legal filings and interviews with seven police officers reveals a largely opaque takedown system, growing frustration among Indian officials over “illegal” posts on X, and the wide range of content authorities seek to suppress—from fake news to political satire.
Some takedown orders target misinformation, but others involve directives to remove reports about a deadly stampede or cartoons mocking Modi and other politicians.
While there’s no sign of personal friction between Musk and Modi, the clash comes as Musk looks to expand Tesla and Starlink in India. Even members of Modi’s own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been targeted, such as lawyer and BJP member Koustav Bagchi, whose lighthearted post about a political rival prompted a police takedown order citing “public safety and national security.”
The Rise of the ‘Censorship Portal’
Previously, only India’s IT and Information & Broadcasting ministries could order content removals, with final decisions limited to specific national security and public order concerns. In 2023, the IT ministry empowered all federal and state agencies and police to issue takedown notices for any content prohibited by law.
Noncompliance risks stripping companies of legal immunity for user content, exposing them to potential penalties. In October 2024, the government introduced Sahyog (“collaboration” in Hindi), an online portal to streamline takedown requests.
X refused to join what it calls a “censorship portal” and sued earlier this year. In court filings, it accused the government of using the system to target satire and political criticism, amounting to an abuse of authority.
Critics argue the policy is designed to quash dissent. “The executive branch cannot be both the arbiter of media legality and the issuer of takedown orders,” said Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at Santa Clara University.
Broad and Varied Targets
Between March 2024 and June 2025, federal and state agencies issued about 1,400 takedown requests to X—over 70% from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which developed Sahyog and operates under Home Minister Amit Shah.
The government has cited examples ranging from child sexual abuse material to fabricated images of Shah’s son, cricket official Jay Shah, alongside a bikini-clad woman. Other orders sought removal of NDTV posts covering an 18-fatality stampede at New Delhi’s largest railway station, and political cartoons like one portraying Modi battling inflation as a red dinosaur, or mocking Tamil Nadu’s flood preparedness.
Chennai police official B. Geetha criticised X for ignoring many requests, saying, “What may be acceptable in some countries can be considered taboo in India.”
