By Sohini Ghosh
Since March 2024 the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued as many as 91 takedown notices, in a nearly 20-month span, to X Corp, red-flagging over 1,100 URLs. for violating various provisions of the law.
The MHA issued these notices under section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act through its arm of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), even as X Corp has resisted onboarding on MHA’s Sahyog portal, which uses the same provision of the IT Act to issue takedown notices.
Records reviewed by The Indian Express show that over half (566) of these URLs were flagged for the offence of “disturbing public order”, followed by 124 for targeting political and public figures.
According to a compilation of these notices from March 20, 2024 to November 7, 2025, which was filed by the MHA before Delhi High Court this month, 58 takedown notices were issued to X last year, including 24 for provisions related to violating public tranquility and promoting enmity — three other notices in 2024 flagged content deemed as threats to national integrity and sovereignty.
Only 14 of the 91 notices issued across the 20-month span alleged criminal activity, such as promotion of betting apps, impersonation of official handles with potential to cause financial fraud, and circulation of child sexual abuse material.
Of the entire lot, the most number of URLs (115) figured in a single notice issued on May 13, 2024, for an allegedly doctored video “spreading misinformation with the intention to influence ongoing electoral processes”.
Amid the Lok Sabha polls during April and May 2024, a total of 761 URLs were flagged in takedown notices to X. Of these, nine notices flagging 198 URLs specifically referred to violation of provisions of the Representation of People’s Act.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
