Remove videos of station stampede: Rlys notice to X

The Railways ministry has directed X (formerly Twitter) to remove 285 social media links containing videos of casualties from the February 15 New Delhi Railway Station stampede, marking one of its first major content enforcement actions since gaining direct takedown powers in December.

The ministry, which cited “ethical norms” and the platform’s own content policy, sent the notice on February 17, asking for action to be taken in 36 hours, according to people aware of the matter.

“This is not only against the ethical norms but also against the content policy of x.com itself as sharing of such video may create unwarranted law and order situation,” the ministry’s notice stated, adding that the content “may affect the operations of Indian Railways” given the “huge rush of trains” these days.

The notice, which HT has seen, gave X 36 hours to remove tweets from multiple accounts, including prominent news networks, citing concerns about “sensitive or disturbing media depicting deceased individuals”.

The notice was at least the second instance where the ministry exercised this power. An earlier notice sent to YouTube and Instagram in January targeted content containing “misleading and sensitive/provocative information” that could “create unwarranted law and order situation”. The notice listed one YouTube video, one Instagram post, and two Instagram reels. It was not clear if this notice pertaining to a specific incident.

A spokesperson for Meta said, “We enforced upon the content after receiving a valid legal order,” referring to the January notice.

HT could not determine the content of the posts and video in question in either notice.

The ministry, Google, and X did not respond to requests for a comment at the time of going to print.

As per X’s policy, “graphic media” can be shared if it is properly labelled, not prominently displayed and is not glorifying violence. In addition, the platform balances between providing “dignity and privacy” in death and “the maintenance of a robust public record, especially for significant historical or newsworthy events”.

The action stems from new authority granted on December 24, when the Railways ministry empowered its executive director of information and publicity (Railway Board) to issue takedown notices directly to social media platforms under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. Previously, such requests were routed through the IT ministry’s Section 69A blocking committee.

In the February 17 notice, the ministry said that it was empowered under the section to issue takedown notices “to remove/disable access to URLs, accounts, etc. where unlawful advertisements, endorsements, promotional content, etc. are published”.

As per this section, safe harbour protection (protection from liability for third party content) is not available to an intermediary (such as a social media platform) if the company fails to remove or disable access upon being informed by the government or “its agency”.

The notice also cited Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, as per which on receiving “actual knowledge” – either in the form of a court order or notification by an “authorised agency” – the intermediary must remove illegal content within 36 hours. It also cited Rule 7 of the IT Rules as per which an intermediary that does not follow the rules stands to lose its safe harbour.

The people quoted above on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity around such takedown notices, told HT that a valid Section 79(3)(b) notice must also identify the law under which such content is illegal. “If the illegality under the substantive law is not cited, the takedown notice is incomplete,” said one of these people.

One of the people quoted above added that this new direct takedown power aims to address multiple concerns, including videos of dangerous stunts on railway tracks, vandalism of railway property, and misinformation about Indian Railways.

“There are so many videos where young people, to make reels and get views, perform dangerous stunts on the railway tracks such as lying on the tracks as a train goes over them. People also damage tracks (including by throwing flammable substances on them) and upload such videos. This can inspire others to copy them so such videos need to be removed,” one of the people cited above said. Another said that videos falsely labelled as videos from Indian trains or stations are used to spread misinformation about the Indian railways.

In January 2022, a train was set on fire in Bihar and another was vandalised when aspirants protested against the alleged irregularities in Railway Recruitment Board's exam. As a result, at the request of the railway ministry, the IT ministry issued Section 69A blocking order against an unspecified number of social media posts in the interest of maintaining public order.