Within a year of getting powers, MHA agency issued 290 takedown notices a day on average for online content

Within a year of being empowered to directly issue takedown notices for online content, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an average of about 290 such notices every day, according to MHA data.

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On March 13, 2024, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) was designated as the MHA’s agency to perform the functions under Section 79 (3) (b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

According to the MHA’s annual report for the year 2024-25, published on Wednesday (March 25, 2026), till March 31, 2025, “1,11,185 suspicious online content has been blocked under Section 79(3)(b) of IT Act.”

Though Section 79(1) of the IT Act shields online platforms and social media intermediaries from legal liability for content posted by users, Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act says that the shield will not apply if they fail to take down the content despite being flagged by government authorities.

Social media intermediary X had challenged this provision and the Sahyog portal, which enables police across the country to send such notices through a common platform, in the Karnataka High Court, but the petition was turned down by the court in 2025. The Hindu reported on March 29, 2025, that nearly a third of the 66 takedown notices sent to X by the I4C sought the removal of content about Union Ministers and Central government agencies.

Social media platforms and other intermediaries are required to remove unlawful content within three hours of the receipt of an order of a court of competent jurisdiction or a reasoned intimation by the Appropriate Government or its agency, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) informed Parliament recently.

Besides the MHA, there are also other government departments empowered under the particular section to issue takedown notices.

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Separately, on March 24, the MHA informed the Lok Sabha that the number of cyber security incidents reported in India has risen sharply over the past five years, according to data tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the national agency responsible for responding to cyber threats.

CERT-In, which functions under the provisions of Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, recorded 29.44 lakh cyber security incidents in 2025, the highest figure in the last five years. The number of such incidents was 20.41 lakh in 2024.

As per CERT-In, the highest number of cyber incidents reported is from National Capital Territory of Delhi.