08/04/2026
Blocking Content Creators is Not 'Public Order', It is the Death of Democracy We Will Not Accept, we condemn the misuse of section 69A of the IT Act.
The Young Democrats National Organizing Committee strongly condemns the systemic and arbitrary deployment of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to silence dissenting voices. While the state maintains the prerogative to protect national security, current executive actions have shifted from "reasonable restriction" to a "secret law" infrastructure that threatens the core of our constitutional democracy. This escalation is evidenced by a record-breaking surge in digital censorship; in 2024, the government blocked over 28,000 URLs, marking the highest volume of takedowns to date, while July 2025 saw a single executive order demanding the immediate suspension of over 2,300 accounts on X, including those of reputable international news agencies.
Since the 2026 amendments to the IT Rules, the compliance window for these blocking orders has been drastically reduced to just three hours—the shortest globally—leaving no room for judicial oversight or the verification of claims before content is scrubbed from the internet. This "censor-first" mandate has disproportionately targeted journalists and independent creators, often bypassing the procedural safeguards mandated by the Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal judgment, which explicitly requires originators to be heard.
We demand that government power be exercised with absolute transparency and accountability, strictly within the spirit of democratic values. The practice of keeping blocking orders confidential under Rule 16 must end immediately, as opaque governance is an affront to Article 19 of the Constitution. Democracy is more than the act of voting; it is the right to question and disagree without fear of executive overreach. We urge the government to establish independent oversight for all Section 69A orders and call upon citizens to protect the principles of free speech. A nation that silences its critics is a nation that obstructs the truth, and the Young democrates National Organizing Committee remains committed to ensuring that power is wielded accountably and in the service of the people, not the censors.