The government has introduced new safeguards governing how online content can be blocked or taken down, tightening procedures under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has notified amendments to ensure that only senior officers are authorised to issue blocking orders, following growing concerns over arbitrary and opaque enforcement.

This comes in the backdrop of an ongoing legal battle between social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and the Centre over the scope and legality of takedown orders under the Information Technology Act.

Under the amended rules, only officers of the rank of Joint Secretary or above in the government can issue blocking orders under Section 79. For police agencies, the authority has be

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