India flagged nearly 2.98 lakh URLs for removal between March and July 2026, covering cybercrime, child sexual abuse material, financial scams and other unlawful content. State governments accounted for about 2.44 lakh URLs, or nearly 82% of the total.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) separately identified around 51,000 URLs linked to cybercrime and other illegal online activity. These included content related to threats to critical infrastructure and investment fraud.
The data comes amid tighter rules for online platforms. Amendments to the Information Technology Intermediary Rules, 2021, reduced the response time for certain government takedown directions from 36 hours to 3 hours.
State governments drive most takedown requests
The 2.98 lakh URLs were flagged by multiple authorised government departments and state authorities rather than a single central agency. State governments accounted for more than 4 out of every 5 URLs submitted for removal.
The government said India has around 600 million social media users, who collectively publish as many as 78,703 pieces of content every 68 seconds. Authorities said this scale makes monitoring unlawful material a continuing challenge.
Over the past 2 years, the cybercrime coordination system has dealt with content involving cross-border financial scams, child sexual abuse material and offences targeting women and children.
The government clarified that the 2.98 lakh figure should not be viewed only as I4C activity, as the requests were submitted by authorised Union and state-level bodies.
Takedown system faces scrutiny
Under the Sahyog system, government employees cannot independently issue removal requests. Only officers authorised by the relevant Union ministry or state government can initiate action against unlawful content, with periodic reviews also expected.
The shorter 3-hour compliance window has drawn scrutiny following reports about automated systems being used to process some government requests.
The PIB Fact Check unit said claims that the February amendments introduced a new API arrangement with Meta were misleading. According to the government, the API integration was introduced in 2025 at Meta’s request, before the rule changes.
The government has defended the framework as necessary to address illegal online activity. However, the scale of the requests has renewed discussions around platform accountability, due process and the use of automation in content removal.
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