Cartoonist Satish Acharya’s Instagram account blocked in India

The Instagram account of political cartoonist Satish Acharya has been restricted in India after the Meta-owned platform received a legal request from the government.

A message displayed by the platform when users try to access the account says: “We reviewed it against our policies and conducted a legal and human rights assessment. After the review, we restricted access to the content in the location where it goes against local law.”

Another political cartoonist, Manjul, also said that Instagram had restricted one of his works about the Election Commission to users in India “pursuant to a notice from the Government of India/Law Enforcement”.

Acharya’s account was blocked under the 2021 Information Technology Rules, which require social media platforms to remove “unlawful content” within three hours of receiving directions from the government or a court.

Responding to the development on Monday, Acharya said on X that he had never seen a government that is “so scared of cartoons”.

I have never seen a govt which is SO SCARED of cartoons! ? https://t.co/gbETc5mpUk— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) September 28, 2026

Acharya also shared a news report from 2018, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that cartoons do not hurt, but have a “healing power”. Cartoonists are “closer to god” as they can minutely observe characteristics of human beings, Modi had said at the time.

He described...

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