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The Indian Express has highlighted the sharp rise in gov-issued blocking orders to social media

A report by The Indian Express has highlighted the sharp rise in government-issued blocking orders to social media platforms between March and July, during the period of the CJP student protests. Most of these directions were issued through the Sahyog portal, a government platform used by Central and state agencies to send blocking notices to social media companies. The report says many of these orders were issued under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000, which requires intermediaries to remove unlawful content to retain their legal protection. These are separate from blocking directions issued under Section 69A of the IT Act. The report also says Meta has integrated its API with Sahyog to comply with the government’s 2–3-hour deadline, potentially allowing content flagged through government directions to be blocked automatically without a separate human review. Digital-rights advocates have raised concerns about this mechanism and its implications for due process and freedom of expression.