Polity and Governance › Governance and accountability

Media, online content and its regulation

The State and the media: the press, broadcasting, online content and the power to block or shut down.

Showing 1 of 3 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all

Safe harbour and the Meta takedown

Prelims and Mains

Safe harbour is the protection that Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 gives a platform from liability for what its users post.

In Shreya Singhal the Supreme Court held that a platform need remove content only on a court order or a government notification tied to Article 19(2).
Blocking orders under Section 69A are confidential.

10 Aug 2026Newnewly added
- A video posted by the Prime Minister became inaccessible on Facebook for some hours on 28 July with a notice citing a legal request, and was restored as an operational error.
- A parliamentary committee demanded an apology and spoke of withdrawing safe harbour, which only Parliament can do by amending the law.
Mains: safe harbour fits hosting but not paid advertising, where the platform picks the audience and earns from each view, which is the case for independent audits of algorithms as the European Union requires of very large platforms.
Frontline, 10 Aug 2026 · Frontline, 18 Jul 2026