IT Ministry blocked 36.8K URLs between Jan 2018, Oct 2023

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has blocked 36,838 URLs between January 2018 and October 2023. This information was revealed by the Minister of State, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in a written response to a question raised by CPI(M) MP John Brittas in the Rajya Sabha.

The government blocked these URLs under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. There are inconsistencies in the number of URLs reported as blocked in 2022.

Under Section 69A of the IT Act, the designated officer, on approval by the IT Secretary and at the recommendation of the 69A blocking committee, can issue blocking orders to any intermediary or a government agency for six reasons --- sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order, public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence.

Under the Section 69A Blocking Rules 2009, “strict confidentiality” must be maintained about all the blocking requests received by different ministries, agencies, and state government, and actions taken thereof.

The government blocked the maximum number of URLs (9,849) in 2020. As per the data, a total of 2799 URLs were blocked in 2018, 3635 in 2019, 9849 in 2020, 6118 in 2021. In August 2023, MeitY reported blocking 6,775 URLs in 2022, but in a recent response to the Rajya Sabha, the number has increased to 6,935.

With 13,660 URLs blocked, X Corp, formerly knows as Twitter, saw the maximum number of URLs blocked between 2018 and October 2023. While X saw a steady and continuous increase in the number of URLs blocked, other social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram and YouTube — did not have a clear trend.