Geo Blocked in India 𝕎

Tracking cases of Geo Block in India.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The original order concerning 25 Reddit posts restricted in India is attached for public reference.

The quoted thread contains links to all 25 posts, along with their details, for further examination.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

On 21 October, Reddit submitted information concerning an Indian government takedown order covering 26 URLs. Reddit has compiled with the order and all 26 URLs have been geo-blocked in India.

The URLs link to posts across multiple subreddits, covering a range of subjects.

🧵

[SFLC.in @SFLCin]

https://t.co/X7ipfsWjp2 has written to SBI Chairman Shri Challa Sreenivasulu Setty (@challasetty) seeking accountability and answers about the @TheOfficialSbi data breach. 🧵

Read our full letter here: https://t.co/4PtMYROJVJ

(1/9)

#dataprivacy #dataleak #digitalsecurity #cyberfraud

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

Nothing says 'public safety' quite like 100 cameras watching you, and 0 cameras watching them.

Comic by @aaaaadvik

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The wht u think ? video restricted on Insta has been posted on X now - https://t.co/q6FuW4eLwt

[Updated YOU @Updated__YOU]

Why this Video Restricted in INDIA 😭😭

It’s frustrating

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Two videos posted by @Updated__YOU on Instagram have been restricted in India within a span of six hours.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Instagram account @BeingReva, with 133K followers, has been withheld in India pursuant to a legal notice issued by the Government of India. The account is currently inaccessible to users in India under this restriction.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The Court clarified that its order does not bar constructive criticism or fair reporting on the Adani Group or government policy, provided they are backed by evidence. It also directed the video’s removal from online platforms.
Previous Order -

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The Calcutta High Court has ordered the removal of “The Friendship Files | How Modi and Adani Stole India” from online platforms following a defamation suit filed by Adani Enterprises against Sabeer Bhatia and others.
The injunction will remain in force until January 31, 2027.
🧵

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The Court observed that allegations linking the Adani Group to narcotics smuggling, terror funding and police violence against a farmer were not substantiated by any authority. It also noted that the video had been re-uploaded after its original version was disabled.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The Instagram account of @srinivasiyc has been withheld in India.
This is the second time in 15 days that their Instagram account has been withheld in India.

[SFLC.in @SFLCin]

https://t.co/NhFrIS6sdb is demanding the three Rs in our joint representation to social media platforms and the government.

Know what these three Rs are. 👇🧵

Sign our representation here: https://t.co/Ej33Mlt59b

(1/4)
#freespeech #FoE #censorship

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Video - https://t.co/FByyNJOzPQ

[Rakesh @AAPKA_RK]

Mahamanav Ek Self Katha .

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Instagram video posted by @AAPKA_RK, captioned “Mahamanav Or Uski Self Katha by Ai”, has been restricted in India.
The video compared statements made by an AI-generated avatar of Swami Chinmayananda with his actual archival footage, accompanied by commentary.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Read more: https://t.co/YXbCHsjyEw

Backup Instagram Account: https://t.co/olCUEsp518

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

Instagram account of @khurpenchh has been restricted in India, similar to other reported cases involving geo-restrictions under India’s Information Technology Rules, 2021.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

from Uttar Pradesh, the platform uses RTI documents, public records, online research and information from tipsters to investigate alleged irregularities. Its work has also drawn criticism over the risks of unverified allegations and social media trials.

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

IFF statement on the geo-blocking of 26 Reddit posts in India

On 21 October 2026, Reddit, Inc filed with the Lumen Database a government takedown order from India covering 26 URLs and complied, so that all 26 posts are now geo-blocked in India (Lumen notice 100411498). The notice names neither a law nor an agency, since its “Laws/Regulations” field is blank and the request is attributed only to an “Agency”. The 26 posts sit in 18 subreddits, from r/Northeastindia to r/IndianDefense and r/myanmar, and were catalogued on 24 October by @geoblockedindia in a thread that also carries images of the notice.

Irrational censorship does not advance national interest

Nearly all of the blocked posts concern the India–China border. They include open-source verification of PLA footage from the June 2020 Galwan clash, satellite imagery reported by Indian newsrooms, a Caravan essay, a TRT World report on Beijing’s claim over Arunachal Pradesh, maps ranging from the one China draws to users’ sketches of proposed new states, and a question put to Chinese users. Several are five or six years old, and three had already been deleted by their authors.

IFF condemns this order as secret, disproportionate and unlawful. We do not dispute that the State may act against speech that genuinely endangers the defence of India, such as troop positions, operational plans, the identities of serving personnel or a hostile state’s coordinated information operation, and the twenty soldiers who died at Galwan deserve a country that takes its border seriously. Nothing on this list is of that kind, because every item was already public, whether released by the PLA, reported by Indian newsrooms or posted by ordinary users. Post 14 describes Indian soldiers holding off an armoured vehicle with sticks, stones and helmets, and their courage is not a secret, nor is there any reason to make it one.

Arunachal Pradesh is part of India and the country asserts that position with confidence, so it has no need to hide from its own citizens the map that Beijing draws, which they need to know in order to answer. Censoring Indian's discussion of the dispute does nothing to weaken China’s position and hands Chinese state media a ready story about Indian censorship. Two of the blocked posts, numbers 11 and 13, were themselves objecting to wrong maps, while others are users’ sketches of proposed new states. The secrecy surrounding the order protects no one but the official who signed it.

Whether this was a direction under Section 69A and the Blocking Rules, 2009, or a notice under Section 79(3)(b) routed through the Sahyog portal, it fails the tests the Supreme Court has set. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) 5 SCC 1 upheld Section 69A only because the 2009 Rules require written reasons, a hearing under Rule 8 and review under Rule 14, and none of these safeguards was observed here. A restriction must also be necessary and the least restrictive means available, and this order is neither, since blocking six-year-old threads answers no present danger, blocking posts already deleted shows that nobody examined the list, and blocking entire threads silences commenters nobody considered.

How Reddit works

Reddit is a federation of tens of thousands of communities known as subreddits, each created by users and run by unpaid volunteer moderators, while Reddit, Inc itself handles legal demands. Reddit says that content named in a government request is checked first against its own rules and then against local and international law, including human rights standards, before access is restricted in the requesting country, after which a reader in India sees a restriction notice while everyone else, including anyone in India using a VPN, still sees the post (Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025).

Because each post sits at a fixed URL with a threaded discussion beneath it, a block by URL hides the whole thread, including every reply beneath it, and r/Northeastindia has lost seven threads about its own borders for readers in India while a reader in Shanghai can still open them. The moderators who built these forums receive no notice and have no appeal, and the only public record of the order is the notice Reddit chose to send to Lumen.

Takedowns on Reddit are rising

India is now the second-largest source of the government takedown demands that Reddit receives. Between July and December 2025, Reddit received 169 such requests from 28 countries, of which India sent 21, second only to the UAE (Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025), up from fewer than ten in all of 2019. The demands have also grown bolder, as a 2025 order relayed through Pune Police named 825 posts about a matrimonial service and warned of a countrywide ban if Reddit did not comply, yet Reddit refused and the court agreed with it. Across all platforms, published analysis puts MeitY’s blocking orders at about 12,600 in 2024 and 24,300 in 2025. On 21 October 2026, Reddit complied with all 26 URLs without any public challenge.

Our demands

1. MeitY and the originating agency must publish the order, the provision invoked and the reasons for each URL.

2. The order must be withdrawn and access restored, and any post said to be unlawful must first go through notice and a hearing under Rule 8.

3. The Review Committee under Rule 14 must examine the order and publish its finding.

4. If the order came through the Sahyog portal, the Government must say so and stop using Section 79(3)(b) against speech while the courts decide its legality.

5. MeitY must disclose how many Reddit URLs it has had blocked since 2024, and on what grounds.

[The Arunachal Times @arunachaltimes_]

Tadak Nalo, the founder and chairman of the Arunachal Frontier Tribal Front (#AFTF), has alleged that his Facebook page, "#TadakNalo for Revolution," was restricted in India. Nalo has recently been raising the issue of the #SiangUpperMultipurposeProject and alleged #Chinese encroachment into Indian state of #Arunachal.

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

@arunachaltimes_ @internetfreedom @SFLCin @TADAK_NALO

[Geo Blocked in India 𝕎 @geoblockedindia]

The Facebook page “Tadak Nalo for Revolution,” run by Tadak Nalo, founder and chairman of the Arunachal Frontier Tribal Front (AFTF), has been restricted in India.
The page has featured posts concerning opposition to the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), Chinese (1/3)