The Central Government of India has blocked over 2,100 URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) on social media platforms in the first six months of 2019. 

The Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Parliament in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said that a total of 633, 1,385 and 2,799 URLs were ordered for blocking in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. 

“Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 empowers Government to block any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above,” he said.

The Minister said that this action was taken by the government to make social media platforms safer place. 

According to the written statement submitted, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and various police departments regularly monitor the various social media platform in order to remove the objectionable content.