Delhi Police Asks Social Media Platforms to Remove Posts Targeting PM Modi: Reports

A police officer told a news outlet that notices have been issued to three social media platforms directing them to remove content containing 'objectionable language and offensive remarks about the prime minister.'

The Wire Staff

delhi police asks social media platforms to remove posts targeting pm modi reports

"Hello Modi thoda sa darr gaye kya (are you a little sacred)?" reads a graffiti at Jantar Mantar. Photo: By Arrangement.

New Delhi: Multiple news outlets have reported that the Delhi Police has asked social media platforms to remove posts and videos targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which it deems objectionable and which were shared during the recent youth movement.

A senior police officer told Indian Express that the deletion exercise ongoing. “In this case, multiple posts were uploaded on various social media platforms, and they have been removed,” the unnamed officer was quoted as having said.

The officer added that notices have been issued to three social media platforms directing them to remove content containing "objectionable language and offensive remarks about the prime minister."

A monthlong agitation by the newly minted Cockroach Janata Party last week burgeoned into a nationwide youth movement, leading to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. A lot of youth anger was directed towards Modi, who was targeted through posters and memes.

Times of India reported that the action followed Delhi Police's social media 'monitoring' team first identifying posts, videos and comments containing "allegedly offensive and abusive remarks aimed at the PM before police issued notices to the platforms, directing them to remove the content in accordance with legal provisions."

Police are also scrutinising "fresh uploads," the report said.

Another police source quoted in a PTI report said, "After review of content uploaded during and after the protest, police will issue notices to remove such posts which are abusive in nature. An exercise to identify such content across different social media platforms is already underway."

It is unclear under which law the police is undertaking this deletion exercise.

The Wire has reported on how a Bengal CPI(M) leader’s satirical Facebook post speculating on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of a teleprompter during his midnight social media video message on July 24 was taken down by Meta within five minutes of it going up.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, under whom the Delhi Police functions, is now able to directly ensure takedowns of news, analysis, comedy, satire or commentary from the internet.

This article went live on July twenty-seventh, two thousand twenty six, at nineteen minutes past ten in the morning.

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