New Delhi, August 20: Multiple government departments and state authorities sought the removal of around 2.44 lakh social media content pieces between March and July this year, according to an official note issued on Thursday.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check said the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, were amended in February to speed up action against unlawful content. Following the amendment, the time available to social media platforms to act on takedown requests was reduced to three hours from the earlier 36 hours.

“During the period from March 2026 to July 2026, around 2.98 lakh URLs were sent for takedown, out of which 2.44 lakhs were sent by states (82 per cent),” the PIB Fact Check account said in a post on X.

It added that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) separately sent around 51,000 URLs for takedown in connection with cyber fraud, infrastructure-related scams and stock-investment scams.

The figures highlight the increased role of government agencies and state authorities in seeking the removal of online content flagged as unlawful or linked to various forms of cybercrime.