Andhra data centre video blocked: Meta says it doesn’t know who ordered it

4 min readNew DelhiJul 3, 2026 01:03 PM IST

Meta Platforms told the court that they will produce the blocking order on the next date of hearing on July 23. (Photo: Reuters)

The Delhi High Court Thursday sought a response from Meta Platforms on a petition by two independent journalists challenging the blocking of a video report on Instagram, which investigated the impact of Google’s proposed data centre in an Andhra Pradesh village.

The journalists, in their petition, said they were unaware of the exact authority which ordered the takedown. Meta Platforms, too, told the court on Thursday that it does not know which law-enforcement agency passed the blocking order and sought time to produce it.

What the petition states

According to the petition, the journalists, Shamsheer Yousaf and Monica Jha, collaborated on an investigative reporting project titled “Dirty Data” by the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC), a collective of journalists across newsrooms.

It had published a news report in February highlighting how Dalit families in Tarluvada, Andhra Pradesh, were allegedly being pressured to sell land to the government for a proposed 1 gigawatt AI data centre by Google. The report also detailed other impacts of data centres across the country, the petition stated.

A nearly five minute-long video report was posted on YouTube and Instagram in March and subsequently, a shorter version of the video, nearly two minutes long, was then posted on Instagram in the “reel” format on May 19.

According to the journalists, represented by advocates Avanti Deshpande and Apar Gupta, the reel went viral, accruing around 2.6 million views on Instagram, before it was blocked in India three days later on May 22.

Notably, the longer duration videos on YouTube and Instagram as well as the written report remains available.

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While withholding the content, it was notified that the video is being withheld owing to a “notice from the Government of India / Law Enforcement under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.”

Highlighting that they are “completely unaware which government authority or law-enforcement agency has ordered the takedown of the 2:01 video reel from Instagram and the reasons thereof”, and that they have not been provided with an opportunity of hearing, the journalists sought restoration of the reel.

What was argued in court

The case was taken up before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Thursday. The journalists’ counsel Apar Gupta flagged, “Usually in these kinds of cases, the intermediary provides a copy of the legal order pursuant to which the blocking (is) actually done.”

Meta Platforms Inc’s counsel Varun Pathak, however, orally informed the court, “What happens is, there is an order passed by a law-enforcement agency somewhere in the country and comes through the Sahyog portal, run by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and then we block the content. Today I don’t know which law-enforcement agency has passed this order… this can be posted after 10 days, I will look (at the blocking order).”

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The Sahyog portal, launched in the latter half of 2024, is aimed at expediting the process of sending notices to IT intermediaries by the government or its appropriate agency under Section 79 (3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, to facilitate the removal or disable access to any information, data or communication link with an objective to curtail/detect unlawful/criminal act.

Section 79(3)(b), part of the safe harbour provision, requires that any content flagged as unlawful by the government or its agency has to be taken down first whereafter any grievance or appeal is entertained.

On the other hand, takedown orders/requests under IT Act Section 69A come with safeguards for intermediaries against arbitrary blocking orders, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal judgement.

Justice Sharma instructed Meta Platforms to file a short reply. Meta Platforms told the court that they will produce the blocking order on the next date of hearing on July 23.

Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court

Professional Profile

Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express.

Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare).

Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others.

She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020.

With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram

Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025)

Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles:

High-Profile Case Coverage

She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy.

Signature Style

Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system.

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