The Indian Government blocked as many as 36,838 uniform resource locators (URLs) in the past five year, The Information Technology Minister shared the information on Rajya Sabha in a written response to CPI (M)’s John Brittas. The data was shared from January 2018 to October 2023.

In a written response to CPI(M)’s John Brittas, IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “The government issues lawful directions for blocking access of information by public under section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 which provides power to government to issue such directions if it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of sovereignty and integrity, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for inciting cognizable offence relating to above.”

Most of the X, formerly known as Twitter, URLs were blocked by the IT Ministry followed by Facebook and Youtube. With 13,660 URLs blocked, X Corp, 10,197 Facebook and 5759 Youtube between 2018 and October 2023, according to the data shared by Chandrasekhar.

In 2018, the Ministry of IT blocked 2,799 URLs while 7,502 URLs were blocked till October this year. At 9,849, the maximum number of URLs were blocked in 2020. The decision was taken under section 69A of IT Act.

Know What Section 69A says:

Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 empowers Government to block information from public access under specific conditions of : (i) interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, (ii) defence of India, (iii) security of the State, (iv) friendly relations with foreign States or (v) public order or (vi) for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence.

Similarly, the ministry said directions were issued for blocking 6,935 URLs in 2022. He further said in Lok Sabha on August 2 “Following the procedures and safeguards prescribed under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, the Central Government has issued directions for blocking of 6096, 6775 and 3470 URLs in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.”

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