Instagram account of ‘Fridays For Future India’ blocked in India

The Instagram account of Fridays For Future India (@fridaysforfuture.india) is currently inaccessible in India under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules. The account represents the Indian branch of the youth climate movement. Neither the government nor Meta has explained the reason for the block.

What is known and what is not

• Known: The account cannot be viewed from India.
• Not known: Who requested the block, under which provision, and why.
• Not established: Whether the block is linked to FFF India’s posts on data centres.

The same mechanism has been used on data-centre critics in Andhra Pradesh

In the past five months, Instagram has restricted content critical of data-centre projects near Visakhapatnam. For the following cases, Instagram or the courts have documented the legal basis for these actions.

• Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC) reel. A two-minute reel from the “Dirty Data” project, published on May 19, 2026, featured Tarluvada villagers who said they were being pressured to give up land for Google’s data centre. It was blocked in India on May 22, after about 2.6 million views. The restriction cited Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000 and went through the government’s Sahyog portal.
• The blocking order. It surfaced only on July 23, after journalists Shamsheer Yousaf and Monica Jha went to the Delhi High Court on June 30. It was issued by the Andhra Pradesh CID’s Director General of Police and named a person the journalists say has no connection to them or their reporting. They withdrew the petition with liberty to approach the High Court with jurisdiction, and the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) sent a legal notice to the state in August.
• Restoration. The reel became accessible again on September 10, after 111 days, with no explanation from the authorities. Instagram’s panel now says the restriction ended on May 22, the day it began.
• Human Rights Forum (HRF). Instagram restricted two HRF posts on May 31 under the same section. One publicised a petition seeking transparency on the projects; the other documented work at the proposed Adavivaram site near the Mudasarlova reservoir. Guntur urban police separately sent X a removal notice for the same content. HRF said it knew of at least 20 short videos from 11 accounts blocked in a single week.
• Stop Vizag Data Centers. HRF reported that Meta restricted this citizen campaign’s entire account on September 19, after nine earlier post restrictions.

What is being built?

Google plans to build a 1 GW AI data centre across 601.4 acres at three sites, investing $15 billion between 2026 and 2030, with AdaniConneX and Airtel as partners. In August, Andhra Pradesh approved four additional data centre projects, totaling approximately Rs 2.83 lakh crore in proposed investment, covering about 1,488 acres and providing around 3,498 MW of capacity. This represents roughly 23.3% of the state’s record peak demand of 15,016 MW.

Platforms comply, often without notice

Section 79(3)(b) requires the platform to remove the unlawful content on receipt of notification from the government, or it will lose its safe harbour. In Shreya Singhal (2015), the Supreme Court upheld the provision only if the request falls within the ambit of Article 19(2) and is made in accordance with due process. In Tanul Thakur (2022), the Delhi High Court held that a blocking order must be shared with the person concerned (with only third-party details redacted).

In the Vizag cases, HRF reported that Instagram did not display restriction notices to users in India and instead redirected them to unrelated reels. The Hindu reported in April that India is one of the few countries where Meta automatically restricts content at scale under local law.

Not FFF India’s first block

In July 2020, Delhi Police issued a Section 79(3)(b) notice to FFF India’s domain registrar regarding its campaign on the draft EIA Notification. The campaign provided citizens with editable template emails to send to the environment ministry. The website was turned off on July 10. FFF stated it had only suggested text for users to modify. A Delhi Police officer later told HuffPost India that the notice was sent inadvertently and included unrelated legal sections. The site was eventually restored, but FFF reported receiving no official communication.

Other recent cases

• A Delhi High Court bench asked the Grievance Appellate Committee to decide the student group SFI Delhi’s appeal against its Instagram suspension within three weeks.
• On October 15, Google reportedly sent The Wire a copyright notice over a September 24 report on Anant Ambani’s Vantara project. The Wire’s founding editor called the copyright claim bogus.

Also read:

• An “automated system” restricted Satish Acharya’s Instagram posts.
• Delhi HC calls Instagram Remix a “tool for copyright violation”. When does reusing a video become infringement?