India blocks political cartoonist Satish Acharya's Instagram account under IT Rules
Satish Acharya’s Instagram profile was restricted in India after a government request, citing the 2021 Information Technology Rules.
The Instagram page of political cartoonist Satish Acharya was blocked in India after the government filed a legal request under the 2021 Information Technology Rules. Instagram explained that it evaluated the request against its policies and performed a human-rights assessment before restricting the content in the location where it conflicted with local law. Acharya responded by mocking the government’s fear of cartoons and cited a 2018 statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that cartoons have a healing power.
His recent work had highlighted one outlet's investigation into electoral-roll revisions and objections by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The action comes amid reports that the government issued nearly two lakh orders to social-media platforms between March and July, with Instagram receiving the highest number of blocking notices. Meta has integrated its API with the Sahyog portal to automate compliance with such directives.
