Railways sent 7 takedown notices to platforms since Dec

The ministry of railways has sent at least seven content takedown notices to social media platforms since gaining direct enforcement powers in December, targeting videos ranging from overcrowded Maha Kumbh Special trains to train vandalism incidents, according to documents reviewed by HT.

Three of these notices, sent to X (formerly Twitter), YouTube/Google, and Facebook/Instagram, have become part of X’s legal challenge against the government’s use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act for content blocking. In its petition, X argued that none of the targeted content meets the restrictions on free speech under Article 19(2) of the Constitution.

These three Section 79(3)(b) notices are different from the February 17 directive ordering X to remove 285 links with videos of casualties of the New Delhi Railway Station stampede, which HT previously reported on February 21. All four notices list multiple tweets by news organisations, including Hindustan Times.

The ministry initially sent X a list of 25 tweet links in the notice dated February 11. This email, sent on February 12, was followed approximately four hours later with an Excel spreadsheet titled “MAHA KUMBH list” containing 138 additional links. “Please find more URLs/Links in the attached excel sheet having the same content which need to be restricted from public access,” the ministry wrote in its follow-up email.

Most tweets showed passengers boarding the engine cabin of a Maha Kumbh Special train in Varanasi. The ministry cited Section 156 of the Railways Act, 1989, which prohibits traveling on a train’s roof, step, footboard, or engine.

HT’s random sampling of the targeted content revealed that while some tweets have been removed, others remain accessible. For tweets from TV13 Gujarati and Asianet Suvarna News, X displays the message: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”

An NDTV tweet dated February 10 remains available with the text: “Video: Passengers Lock Themselves In Train’s Loco Cabin Amid Mahakumbh Rush,” accompanied by a screenshot showing people climbing into the train’s locomotive cabin.

A February 9 Navbharat Times tweet in Hindi stated: “Passengers took over the train engine in Varanasi[.] Due to heavy rush in Varanasi, passengers boarded the engine of Maha Kumbh Special train, there was no place for the pilot to sit, the door was closed from inside, then RPF jawan took him out.” It included a video showing passengers boarding the Maha Kumbh Special train.

ABP News posted a similar video on February 9, noting that “a dozen devotees boarded the engine to travel” in a train at Varanasi Cantt Railway Station.

Among the affected accounts was the Samajwadi Party’s Media Cell, which posted: “Where are all those hundreds of Maha Kumbh special trains that the Indian Railway Minister aka Reel Minister/UP CM Yogi Adityanath/BJP leaders had claimed to run in view of the arrival of 100 crore people and big news about them was also published in the media? Why are the devotees hanging from the train toilets, hanging from the windows/doors and now it has crossed all limits, they are being made to travel in the train engine compartment while no one is allowed to go in the train engine compartment.”

A separate February 12 notice targeted 12 links showing passengers vandalizing train windows, including a December 20 tweet from Hindustan Times about “angry passengers shatter[ing], vandalise[ing] train in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti district.”

The ministry labelled these as content “promoting unlawful activities i.e. violence and harm to the National Property… It is categorically mentioned that the content showed in shared links may be taken down immediately as in the wake of huge rush in trains now a days [sic] it may affect operations of Indian Railways too,” the notice said, citing Section 151 of the Railways Act which prescribes fine and/or jail term of up to five years for damaging railway properties.

The most recent notice dated February 21, citing Section 156 of the Railways Act, ordered platforms to remove three links containing “false and misleading content,” claiming some videos were “old footage from Bangladesh in Narsingdl Station Area on 7 Dec 2024 which is being shared in a deceptive manner, provoking unlawful activities among the public.”

While the targeted tweet on X was no longer available, HT found that the Instagram reel showing a person shooting video atop a moving train engine remained accessible, and the Facebook link redirected to random, unrelated reels.