India's rising content, account takedown requests politically driven: USTR

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has flagged the high number of internet shutdowns as well as requests for takedown of contents and user accounts, which appear “politically motivated”, that US companies get from India.

 

In its 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, the USTR has said that in India, US firms are subject to “an increasing number of takedown requests for content and user accounts related to issues that appear politically motivated”.

 

Content and user account takedown requests as well as the debate around the motivation for such government actions have been an issue for the Centre and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for some time now.

 

In the latest instance, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has moved the Karnataka High Court with a plea that the IT ministry was engaged in arbitrary censorship and unlawful content regulation through the misuse of Section 69 and Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act of 2000.

 

Apart from the takedown requests, the report has also flagged the compliance requirements imposed on significant social media intermediaries under the Information Technology Rules of 2021, and said that some US stakeholders have identified these compliance requirements as “concerning”.

 

“For example, the IT Rules impose personal criminal liability on individual employees in cases where a firm is not in compliance with the rules. The IT Rules also include imposition of impractical compliance deadlines and takedown protocols,” the USTR report said.

 

Apart from the requirements under the IT Rules, the US also continued to monitor the impact of localised internet shutdowns in India on “US trade and investment, including services exports”.

 

In its report, the USTR has also said that the draft rules of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act “impose potentially burdensome requirements on data fiduciaries”.

 

The USTR has further said in its report that the IT ministry’s Compulsory Registration Order of 2014, which mandates that electronics and information and communication technology manufacturers register their products and have them certified by laboratories accredited to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), leads to “additional compliance costs that can exceed tens of millions of dollars”.

 

“The US government has recommended that the Indian government recognise internationally accredited labs, harmonise labelling requirements with global practices, harmonise the validity period of test reports and certification, and eliminate retesting requirements,” the USTR report said.