Centre sent 91 takedown notices to X from March 2024, over 50% for ‘disturbing public order’: Report

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has issued 91 takedown notices to social media platform X since March 2024 for over 1,100 URLs allegedly violating legal provisions, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

More than half of these URLs, or 566, were flagged for “disturbing public order”, notices reviewed by the newspaper showed. This was followed by 124 for targeting political and public figures.

The newspaper reviewed a compilation of these notices issued between March 20, 2024 and November 7, 2025, which was filed in an affidavit by the Ministry of Home Affairs before the Delhi High Court in December.

These notices were issued to X under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act via the ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.

This provision states that online intermediaries, such as social media platforms, can lose their safe harbour status if they fail to remove or disable access to content that is used to commit an “unlawful act” despite being told to do so by government authorities.

Removing this status would mean that the platforms would be liable for the content in question.

As per the notices examined by The Indian Express across the 20-month span, 58 takedown notices were issued to X in 2024, including 24 for provisions related to violating public tranquillity and promoting enmity.

Three other notice...

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