Delhi HC orders Meta to reveal Instagram takedown evidence

The Delhi High Court on August 17 directed Meta to place on record the material based on which it disabled the Instagram account of stock market analyst Aakanksha Gupta. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued the direction in a civil suit filed by Gupta, a SEBI-registered research analyst, after Instagram took down her account citing community standards on adult sexual solicitation, an allegation she denies. Meta argued the suit is not maintainable and that the account was a genuine case of adult solicitation, but agreed to preserve all four of Gupta's accounts pending the next hearing. The court granted no interim relief to Gupta and gave Meta three weeks to file its written statement.

The case highlights the gap between the IT Rules 2021 and their enforcement. Under Rule 4(8), platforms that disable content on their own initiative must notify users with reasons and provide an opportunity to dispute the action. Barandbench reported that in practice, users often receive generic notices that do not specify the ground for restriction. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology recently recommended that the government consider withdrawing Meta's Section 79 safe harbour protection after a video of the Prime Minister was restricted, though legal experts said the committee lacks the power to do so.

Separately, the government's PIB Fact Check unit said nearly 3 lakh URLs were sent to social media platforms for takedown between March and July 2026, with 82% coming from states. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre flagged 51,000 URLs related to cyber scams, stock-investment fraud, and child sexual abuse material. The unit rejected reports that Meta had automated content blocking to meet the government's three-hour takedown deadline, calling them misleading and noting the API integration with Meta was done at Meta's request in 2025.