Nijjar, Bishnoi, Satluj and Parliament: What The Wire's Censored Social Media Posts Talk About
Originally published on August 3, this article was updated on August 7 with information on more takedown orders affecting The Wire's posts since then.
New Delhi: What do Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the upcoming Ajay Devgn-starrer Chauhaan and Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh have in common?
They all seem to be things the Modi government would rather you don't read about on social media, going off its takedown orders targeting this newsroom's handles.
Starting in February but doing so more frequently since last month, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube have withheld for Indian audiences at least 21 posts created by The Wire and The Wire Hindi in line with government orders.
Some of these posts contain cartoons critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose circulation also prompted Instagram to block The Wire's account itself for almost two hours.
Other topics that this withheld content deals with include the US government's indictment against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Washington's murder-for-hire case against Nikhil Gupta and the Modi government's censorship of the film Satluj.
Many notices that these platforms sent to The Wire cite the 2021 IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, which enable operation of section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, to enforce which the government runs its controversial Sahyog portal. These occur alongside the authorities' move to withhold many posts by sundry users lampooning the government.
Below is a compilation in reverse chronological order of the 21 posts that social media platforms withheld from Indian audiences, and one additional post that has been rendered inaccessible even outside India for unclear reasons.
August 7: Nikhil Gupta's pending sentencing hearing in the ‘Pannun murder plot’
Facebook and Instagram on Friday (August 7) have withheld The Wire's posts on Nikhil Gupta's sentencing hearing in a US federal court being postponed because the man he allegedly conspired to have killed, Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has requested to be present in the hearing.
Both platforms said they withheld The Wire's posts – within hours of them going up – “through an automated system” pursuant to their legal requirements under the 2021 IT Rules. The article concerned remains online, as do our posts sharing it on X.
Gupta, an Indian national, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy earlier this year after US authorities accused him of conspiring to kill Pannun in New York as part of a plan orchestrated by Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav.
New Delhi subsequently acknowledged that Yadav had previously worked for the government but maintained that he was no longer employed when the US indictment was unsealed. Read more here.
US Court Delays Nikhil Gupta Sentencing After Pannun Seeks to Attend Hearinghttps://t.co/sW2d9xy2i3
— The Wire (@thewire_in) August 7, 2026
August 6: Arunachal group's claims of Chinese encroachment
Instagram has withheld The Wire's post sharing its article on how the Nah Welfare Society alleged that the Chinese Army has been encroaching on Indian territory near the Taksing village in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri district.
Though The Wire shared the article on June 28, Instagram on August 6 informed this newsroom that it had withheld its post “because of a legal request”. Unlike many other notices, this one does not explicitly invoke the 2021 IT Rules. Our posts on Facebook and X remain live.
After the Nah Welfare Society had made its allegation, the Indian Army said that reports on the Chinese Army encroaching and setting up camps on Indian land are “incorrect and without any basis”.
Its allegations also came against the background of the gradual thaw in Sino-Indian relations that began in late 2024. Ties had severely deteriorated in June 2020 due to the deadly clash that month between Chinese and Indian soldiers in eastern Ladakh. That incident in turn followed Chinese troops entering Indian territory starting in May, but Prime Minister Modi claimed at an all-party meeting in June after the clash that there were no Chinese incursions into India.
August 1: Jantar Mantar protest art
The Wire's video report on how graffiti artists helped keep alive the youth protests against the Modi government at Jantar Mantar Road was shared on Facebook but this is not accessible in and out of India anymore. Unlike other posts that indicate Facebook withheld the content in compliance with official orders, this one says its non-availability “may be because of a technical error that we're working to fix”. The report remains available on Instagram, X and YouTube.
July 31: Sanjay Singh's remarks in the Rajya Sabha
The Wire Hindi's Instagram post containing a snippet from Aam Aadmi Party MP Singh's remarks in the Rajya Sabha the previous day has been withheld in India in compliance with the 2021 Rules, even as the video concerned is merely a clipping from public broadcaster Sansad TV's publicly available coverage.
Instagram's notice says it withheld the post “through an automated system implemented pursuant to our legal requirements” under the Rules.
In his remarks on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Singh had criticised the Modi government's education policies with the mock slogan “anpadh rahega India tabhi toh andhbhakt banega India” (India will blindly worship [the government] only if it stays uneducated).
'अनपढ़ रहेगा इंडिया तभी तो अंधभक्त बनेगा इंडिया'
- AAP MP Sanjay Singh (@SanjayAzadSln) pic.twitter.com/QB8caDwoqA
— The Wire हिंदी (@thewirehindi) July 31, 2026
July 23: Navsharan Singh's views on Satluj
Writing in The Wire on July 22, independent researcher and activist Navsharan Singh criticised the Modi government's multi-year censorship of Satluj culminating with the film's brief release on Zee5 last month before the government ordered it off the platform. When this outlet shared his article on Facebook and Instagram, both platforms withheld our posts citing the 2021 Rules.
However, our X post sharing his article remains live on that platform.
July 15: External affairs ministry's response to the US indictment of Lawrence Bishnoi
The Wire Hindi's Facebook and Instagram posts of July 15, sharing its article covering the external affairs ministry's response to the US's Bishnoi indictment, have been withheld in India. Its X post on the same article remains live.
In its response, the ministry had said that the US indictment of July 7 and the Canadian police's subsequent remarks pin responsibility on Bishnoi's gang – and not Indian government agents – for the killing of Khalistani separatist Nijjar near Vancouver three years ago.
However the Canadian police, when asked in an interview of the alleged involvement of Indian officials in Nijjar's murder, had said she would not comment given that persons in Canada are currently facing charges in that case – suggesting that Washington's Operation Hardball and Ottawa’s probe into the 2023 killing are on separate tracks.
July 13: Video explaining the indictment against Bishnoi
Instagram has, citing the 2021 Rules and via an automated system, withheld The Wire's video explaining the US government indictment against Bishnoi posted on July 13. Shares of the same explainer remain live on Facebook and X, while the video itself is available on The Wire's YouTube channel.
July 8: Coverage of the Bishnoi indictment
Facebook and Instagram have withheld both The Wire and The Wire Hindi's social media posts amplifying their coverage of the US indictment against Bishnoi and others published on July 8 (see here, here and here). Our coverage of the indictment has stayed online on X.
July 1: Chauhaan
Again, both Facebook and Instagram have withheld The Wire's posts sharing a story by Junaid Dar highlighting how the trailer of Devgn's upcoming action film Chauhaan has rekindled painful memories for thousands of Kashmiri pellet gun survivors whose lives were permanently altered by their injuries.
Dar's reportage came days before the Rapid Action Force (RAF) unprecedentedly fired pellet guns at the largely peaceful protesters who marched to parliament on July 20 to demand then-Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. Human rights groups have decried the pellet gun for its indiscriminate fire and, as has happened with scores of men in Kashmir, a 19-year-old man hit by the RAF on the 20th was seriously injured in his eye.
March 16: ‘Gas Bottle Nahi, Gasbag’
Four months prior, Facebook withheld The Wire's cartoon video entitled ‘Gas Bottle Nahi, Gasbag’ satirising the Modi government for the LPG crisis in India triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran starting February 28. It is currently accessible on Instagram, X and YouTube.
Gas Bottle Nahi, Gasbag | By: Come LPG Come Productions pic.twitter.com/yRQtILASxx
— The Wire (@thewire_in) March 16, 2026
February 28: ‘Medal mila hai Vishwaguru ko’
The Wire's X post sharing its cartoon video satirising Modi's receipt of a new Israeli medal in Jerusalem – entitled ‘Medal mila hai Vishwaguru ko’ (Vishwaguru has obtained a medal) – on February 25 was withheld in India on the 28th, a day after it was published.
Incidentally the cartoon came just a day after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, sparking off the West Asia crisis that continues to this day.
The Wire is not aware of what law X has withheld the post under. When viewed from India, it currently says it has been “withheld in India in response to a legal demand”.
मेडल मिला है | सब चंगा सी प्रोडक्शन | @thewire_in pic.twitter.com/7xI99ebRhX
— The Wire हिंदी (@thewirehindi) February 27, 2026
February 9: ‘Koi Mujhko Na Kaate’
But it was The Wire's ‘Koi Mujhko Na Kaate’ (‘No One Bite Me’) satirical animated video that has been most censored of all. The cartoon lampooned Modi for not going to parliament amid a controversy over former Army chief General Manoj Naravane's claim – in his stalled memoirs – that the PM told him to do whatever he deemed fit amid Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh back in 2020.
Its title riffs off a Telugu Desam Party spokesperson's suggestion that Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla had ‘advised’ Modi not to attend the House's proceedings amid the controversy because sloganeering women MPs from the opposition could have bitten the PM.
This video remains censored on this website's Facebook, Instagram, X and even YouTube accounts, being available on BlueSky for the time being.
At the time, in February, The Wire had learnt informally that the information and broadcasting ministry asked Meta to block the 52-second video on Instagram and that the social media giant blocked The Wire's handle itself ‘in error’. The account was inaccessible for almost two hours on the 9th.
Koi Mujhko Naa Kaate | By: 56 Productions | #Humour
— The Wire (@thewire.in) February 9, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Later, The Wire was invited via an emailed notice to attend a meeting on February 11 where it was given an opportunity to submit its views to an official inter-departmental committee on the government's decision to ban the cartoon on its social media handles.
While the notice did not specify the grounds for the ban, The Wire's founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, who attended the meeting, was informed orally before he was invited to speak that the reasons for blocking the cartoon were that it spread rumours/unverified information that would affect the defence, security, reputation of the country and India's relations with foreign countries. It was unclear which part of the short video had spread rumours.
May 2025: News of Rafale being possibly shot down during the India-Pakistan military conflict
In May 2025, The Wire's website itself was arbitrarily blocked in India for a whole day. The ministry subsequently ordered the deletion of a story reporting what CNN had said about Pakistan's claim to have shot down an Indian Rafale jet during Operation Sindoor as a condition for restoring access. Read more about that here: Statement by The Wire on the Government's Blocking and Unblocking of its Website
Censorship again shines spotlight on government's use of IT Rules
Many notices that Facebook and Instagram have sent to The Wire cite compliance with the 2021 Rules, which enables operation of section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, under which social media platforms can lose their safe harbour privilege – which shields them from some liability for what users post via their services – if they do not withhold “unlawful” content notified by the government within the short, prescribed window of time.
Section 79(3)(b) and rule 3(1)(d) of the 2021 Rules are also the life-force of the Union home ministry's controversial Sahyog portal through which various government agencies can send takedown notices to social media platforms and other intermediaries for content they flag as unlawful.
As The Wire's Sravasti Dasgupta reported earlier this year, the government's Sahyog user manual excludes journalists and content creators – who stand to have their content censored – from its definition of the ‘main stakeholders’ of the portal. Neither does it detail any independent review process before an item is ordered to be taken down.
Earlier this year, X users posting criticism of the Modi government amid the US-Israeli war on Iran also reported receiving content takedown notices under section 69A of the IT Act, which is implemented via the separate 2009 IT ‘blocking rules’ and provides for a somewhat narrower scope of content that may be withheld.
This article went live on August seventh, two thousand twenty six, at thirty minutes past five in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
