Meta-owned Instagram has restricted access in India to a two-minute reel posted by Maktoob Hindi covering the ongoing Jantar Mantar protests, according to medianama.com. The platform said it acted after receiving a legal requirement under India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The reel remains viewable outside India and via VPN, but users in India see a restriction notice when accessing the URL through web browsers.
The blocked content displays a message stating, “The post is unavailable in India: We restricted access to this content pursuant to legal requirements under India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules.” However, when accessed through the Instagram app, the notice does not appear; instead, a random reel plays automatically. The origin of the legal order prompting the geo-block is not publicly disclosed. MediaNama archived the video before it was blocked to preserve the content.
This action highlights ongoing tensions between social media platforms and Indian regulatory frameworks, which have increasingly mandated content restrictions under the 2021 IT rules. The Jantar Mantar protests have attracted significant attention, and this is among recent instances where Meta has complied with government requests to restrict politically sensitive content. Such measures reflect the broader challenges platforms face balancing legal compliance and content accessibility in India.
The restriction took effect recently, with the archived version of the reel available on MediaNama’s website. The legal framework cited is India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which have been invoked in multiple cases to regulate digital content within the country.