A standup comedian in India posted a seemingly harmless Instagram reel in March, parodying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overly familiar behavior when he meets foreign leaders — the prolonged bear hugs, the verbal fumbles, the nervous bursts of laughter.
A couple of weeks later, after the video had amassed millions of views, it was blocked by Instagram. The same day, on X, several other accounts popular for their political satire and memes were blocked under Indian government pressure after they criticized Delhi’s handling of a cooking gas shortage caused by the U.S.-Iran war, or otherwise poked fun at Mr. Modi.
Satire, it seems, is the latest target of the Modi government’s systematic muzzling of public discourse in the world’s largest democracy. Since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, it has steadily eroded civil liberties and increased its grip across all layers of society, including neutering legacy media that has historically demanded government accountability. Now it is tightening control of the digital commons, weaponizing the threat of legal liability to ensure compliance from Big Tech players eager to maintain access to India’s massive user base.
The worldwide reach of platforms like X, Instagram and Facebook makes what’s happening in India a global concern. Mr. Modi’s government is building a potential template for other countries that seek to restrict online self-expression.
The Indian government’s main weapon is the Information Technology Act. Originally enacted in 2000, it empowers authorities to take down online content deemed to pose a threat to Indian sovereignty, security, public order or foreign relations. It has been used over the years by various Indian administrations to target content critical of them.
Mr. Modi’s government has wielded the act with increasing frequency and strengthened it in recent years with a series of amendments.
His administration has now proposed new ones that take even more explicit aim at ordinary internet users who post — or merely share — online content on news and current affairs. That means if I, as an independent journalist, put up an Instagram reel critical of Mr. Modi’s policies, the post — and perhaps my account — could be blocked. Both the platform and I could face legal repercussions. The Press Club of India and the Internet Freedom Foundation have warned that the amendments will have far-reaching consequences on free expression and social media platforms in India.
This is a logical extension of the ruling party’s throttling of free speech. Its intimidation of the once-rambunctious traditional Indian media has left bloggers, YouTube content creators, independent journalists and the average internet user to fill the gap in holding the government accountable. Now we, too, are being targeted.
In 2021 the government ordered Twitter to shut down accounts that criticized Mr. Modi over unpopular new agricultural laws and related widespread protests by farmers. The laws were eventually repealed. Two years later, the government blocked online access to a BBC documentary critical of Mr. Modi. Lately, the policing has intensified: Last year, a 19-year-old college student was arrested after sharing a post that questioned the official narrative of India’s brief military conflict with Pakistan in May 2025, and in the last few months new cases have resulted in independent digital news outlets and popular satirists being purged from social media.
This is sending a chill through society, forcing citizens to weigh whether speaking out is worth the risk. For many, it isn’t.
The stakes are particularly high for Muslims like me, who face constant pressure in Mr. Modi’s Hindu-chauvinist India to prove our patriotism even as the ruling party weakens our voting rights and otherwise marginalizes us. When I share a political post on Instagram, it is nearly always followed by a panicked call from my parents, worried about the legal repercussions. Every word I write, including in this essay, is tinged with fear. Like many others, I have become less vocal on social media. With each passing day, our voices are diminished.
Free speech in India is far from being completely extinguished. The political opposition proved its resilience in the 2024 elections in which Mr. Modi’s party lost its parliamentary majority, and someday, Mr. Modi will be gone. But even more liberal future governments might find it hard to resist the machinery of silence being installed.
And what’s happening in India may not stay in India. Freedom of online expression has been under long-term strain globally even in democracies like the United States, where the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to squelch critical news coverage and satirical content, and where Silicon Valley executives have shown an increasing willingness to please the president.
India is showing where this leads: Even in the world’s largest democracy, when people are afraid to express themselves, they don’t.
