Meta Restricts News Reports On Bypoll Rigging Allegations In Bengal, Citing IT Rules

Several posts by journalists and local news outlets in West Bengal reporting claims of vote rigging during the October 6 bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar have been restricted on Facebook in India, with a notice citing Indian IT laws.

NBTV Bangla, one of the affected outlets, has had its entire page restricted in India for seven days, according to a notice it received from Meta.

The restrictions came amid allegations of vote rigging, voter intimidation and police interference during the October 6 bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar. Opposition parties accused the ruling BJP of electoral malpractice and demanded repolling before the October 9 results.

Entire Facebook Page Restricted In India For Seven Days: NBTV

During the bypolls in Rejinagar and Nandigram, several videos went viral on social media, with claims that locals were alleging vote rigging in Rejinagar. One such video shows a woman alleging fake voting in Rejinagar in front of police.

The video was reported by local Bengali news outlet NBTV, which covers general news with a focus on Bengal. The post was later restricted on the platform in India.

NBTV has more than five lakh followers on Facebook.

A representative of NBTV told BOOM that its entire Facebook page was restricted in India following the state bypolls.

"NBTV has been restricted in India for seven days. We noticed a notification to this effect at around 9:30 am on October 7, which contained all the relevant details," the representative said. "Earlier, two of our videos related to allegations of vote rigging in the Rejinagar bypoll were restricted. This time, however, NBTV’s entire Facebook page has been restricted in India."

Below are screenshots shared by the representative with BOOM.

The representative also said that the outlet had verified the authenticity of the videos with locals, who alleged that fake voting had taken place during the polls on October 6.

We were unable to determine which provision of India’s IT rules was invoked to restrict the page in India, as Meta’s public notice only directed us to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Another journalist, Mamud Shah Alam of local news outlet Inscript.me, also confirmed that the same video showing a woman alleging fake voting during the Bengal bypolls was restricted in India after it was posted on their Facebook page.

The video was titled as “Rejinagar residents allege fraudulent voting during the bypoll.”

Alam told BOOM, “We sourced the video from an X post but did not independently verify it. We received the restriction notification shortly after posting it on our Facebook page and later took it down.”

BOOM found at least four other posts carrying the video, along with another video shared by local outlets and creators, that were restricted in India.

The videos featured same locals alleging fake voting in Rejinagar, including one covered by Bengali news channel ABP Ananda.

Other local news outlets, such as G Bangla, which has over 800,000 followers, and AMS TUBE, which has over 200,000 followers on Facebook, also reported on the same video and faced similar restrictions on their posts in India.

Content creator Rahul Mia, who has around 86,000 followers, also faced the same restriction after posting the video. He later spoke out against the restriction, alleging that it amounted to suppression of people's voice.

However, the same videos posted by accounts with relatively fewer followers and lower engagement remains accessible without any restrictions. See here, here and here.

The journalists shared screenshots with BOOM showing that Meta cited India’s IT rules, including Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as the basis for restricting the posts.

Section 79 provides intermediaries with safe-harbour protection from liability for content posted by users, subject to certain legal requirements. Section 79(3)(b) states that this protection may not apply if an intermediary fails to act after being notified that its platform is being used for an unlawful act.

India’s Content Takedown Rules

Earlier in September, Decode reported that the government’s takedown deadline had been reduced to three hours. With the Sahyog portal integrated with platforms such as Meta through an API, content could potentially move from a government request to removal at unprecedented speed.

The Sahyog portal was developed to automate the process of sending notices to intermediaries by the appropriate government or its authorised agency under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

In a conversation with Decode, Rakesh Maheshwari, a former senior official at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) who played a role in India’s information technology policy framework, said platforms should retain a “human in the loop.”

Maheshwari also spoke about the evolution of India’s content-blocking framework, the implications of the three-hour takedown window for platforms, and the need for greater transparency when journalistic and protest-related content is removed.

BOOM has reached out to Meta for comment. This report will be updated once a response is received.