The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed authorities to inform users before blocking their social media pages, as per the principles of natural justice.
In an October 5 order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has mandated that when a social media page is ordered to be taken down by the authorities, both the user and the intermediary must be informed. This decision comes in response to a petition filed by Haryana 24 News Network against a takedown order issued by the superintendent of police in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana on August 21 to block its Facebook page in India.
The petitioner argued that they were not given prior notice before their Facebook page was blocked. The court observed that only an officer of the rank of deputy inspector general of police or higher can issue such a notice. Consequently, the petitioner's Facebook page has been ordered to be restored.
The order issued by the superintendent of police was found to have violated rules, as it was not issued by an officer of the appropriate rank. The police had stated that one of the company’s directors was an accused in an extortion case and had been using the page to allegedly intimidate the victim and witnesses.
This directive comes amid concerns about the widespread use of blocking orders by authorities in India. Between March and July 2021, the government issued nearly two lakh orders to social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to take down content, amounting to nearly 1,275 orders every day.
In comparison, between October 2024 and October 2025, 2,312 blocking orders were sent to 19 online platforms through the Sahyog portal. Instagram received the highest number of blocking orders, nearly 1 lakh, while Facebook received about 80,000 and YouTube got nearly 15,000.
Source:
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