From Posts to Plumbing: How India Is Rewiring Big Tech

Isharth Kumar

(Intern) Policy & Advocacy, CyberPeace

PUBLISHED ON

Aug 8, 2026

Introduction

At 4 pm on August 3, 2026, representatives of Meta, X, Snapchat and Google walked into a room in Parliament to face India's Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. On paper, it looked like one more instance of a routine that has repeated for half a decade: a Big Tech company gets called in, questioned, and sent away with a warning. But this summons, and the fortnight of scrutiny that has followed it, reveals something different about the direction of India's digital governance in 2026. The government's question has stopped being, "Will you take this post down?" It has increasingly become, "How does your platform actually work, and can we redesign the parts we don't like?"

The trigger: A technical glitch that became a systemic complaint

The proximate cause of the August 3 hearing was almost trivial by itself. On July 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a video on Instagram and Facebook about the government's crackdown on examination paper leaks. Meta briefly restricted the Facebook version before restoring it, blaming the removal on a technical error in its automated filters.

That explanation didn't satisfy the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), which called it inadequate, and the incident became the occasion for a much broader reckoning. Committee chairperson Nishikant Dubey summoned Meta, X, Snapchat and Google to examine three things: the online safety of women and children; the data privacy of ordinary citizens, including farmers and labourers; and how far platforms actually comply with India's law-and-order requirements. Days later, MeitY brought Meta's global team in for two days of direct questioning that stretched into a third day of technical discussions covering child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfakes, bot accounts and, notably, the design of Instagram's content-recommendation algorithm itself.

From takedown notices to systems audits

For most of the last decade, India's approach to online harm ran through blocking orders and the "notice-and-takedown" machinery built into the IT Rules, 2021: a court or government authority flags a specific URL or post, the platform has a fixed window to act, and non-compliance risks the loss of legal immunity. It was a model built around individual pieces of content.

What is unfolding now looks structurally different. Officials aren't only asking Meta to remove a video; they are asking why its recommendation systems keep resurfacing flagged material, why "verified" accounts belonging to prominent or official figures don't have extra layers of human review before restriction, and why bot-detection and CSAM-screening pipelines aren't catching harmful content before it spreads. The Supreme Court-monitored committee tracking "digital arrest" fraud has gone further still, directing MeitY, the Department of Telecommunications and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to study time-based restrictions on audio and video calls altogether, a proposal that touches the basic architecture of how calling features work, not any single conversation.

Parliament's committee has separately pushed for a national registration system that would require every intermediary operating in India to publicly list its grievance officer, nodal contact and compliance officer as a response to law enforcement's repeated difficulty simply reaching a platform when something goes wrong. It has also asked for tighter regulation of digital advertising, which officials say is routinely exploited for cyber fraud, and for rules under Section 67C of the IT Act governing how long intermediaries must preserve user data. None of this is about any one post; it is about redesigning the infrastructure platforms use to operate in India.

Messaging apps and the encryption problem

Nowhere is the shift from "content" to "architecture" clearer than in the government's dealings with peer-to-peer messaging platforms. WhatsApp has spent years contesting the traceability requirement under Rule 4(2) of the IT Rules in the Delhi High Court, arguing it would rather exit India than build a permanent capability to identify the "first originator" of every message since doing so would mean re-engineering its end-to-end encryption for all users, not just suspects.

That fight has resurfaced in a new form. In a submission to the parliamentary committee, WhatsApp argued that new rules requiring platforms to detect and label AI-generated "synthetic" content cannot technically apply inside encrypted chats because no one outside a conversation "not even WhatsApp" can see what's inside it. Signal has proven even harder to engage with: MeitY told the committee it has struggled to establish formal contact with the app, which does not publicly list a grievance officer, exposing how little leverage the government currently has over encrypted, minimally staffed platforms compared with advertising-funded giants like Meta and Google. The proposal to cap or restrict call durations to fight "digital arrest" scams is, in effect, an attempt to regulate a messaging feature rather than any message sent through it, perhaps the clearest sign yet that the fight has moved from posts to plumbing.

The future of "safe harbour"

Underpinning all of this is Section 79 of the IT Act, the "safe harbour" clause that shields platforms from liability for what their users post, provided they exercise due diligence. That protection is now being squeezed from three directions at once. The parliamentary committee has unanimously recommended withdrawing safe harbour from platforms that don't comply with Indian law and said it should be pulled specifically from Meta unless its CEO apologises over the PM's video takedown, though a committee cannot itself revoke a statutory protection; only Parliament can amend Section 79. Separately, the Supreme Court-monitored panel on digital-arrest fraud is examining an explicit provision making intermediaries liable for the misuse of their platforms so that fraud victims could claim compensation directly. And MeitY's draft Second Amendment Rules, circulated in March 2026, go furthest of all: they propose making safe harbour conditional on real-time compliance with executive directions, rather than a general protection available to any platform that follows published rules, which is a more direct, command-driven model than even the European Union's Digital Services Act.

Why this matters beyond the headlines

For the ordinary internet user, none of this is abstract. A registration-and-disclosure regime, together with faster and more accountable grievance handling, could make it easier to get genuinely harmful content addressed. But architecture-level intervention cuts both ways. Rules aimed at traceability or at labelling encrypted content risk weakening the very privacy protections that make messaging apps trustworthy in the first place, and a safe harbour that hinges on obeying informal executive directions, rather than settled published law, hands the government far more day-to-day leverage over what stays online. The Supreme Court has listed the digital-arrest matter for September 16; how it, and Parliament, ultimately treat Section 79 will decide whether India's platforms remain neutral pipes carrying other people's speech or become extensions of state enforcement.

Conclusion

India’s digital-governance battle is no longer confined to individual posts or takedown orders. It is increasingly about the architecture beneath the internet: recommendation engines, encryption, verification, data retention and safe-harbour protections. That shift may strengthen accountability and user safety, but it also expands the state’s influence over digital infrastructure. As Parliament and the Supreme Court confront these questions, India faces a fundamental choice: regulate platforms or reshape how they operate.

Sources

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PUBLISHED ON

Aug 8, 2026

Related Blogs

#FactCheck: Viral video claims Ahmedabad plane crash but actually a Hollywood Movie Clip

June 23, 2025

Executive Summary:

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A viral video claiming the crash site of Air India Flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad has misled many people online. The video has been confirmed not to be from India or a recent crash, but was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood on a TV or movie set meant to look like a plane crash set piece for a movie.

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Claim:

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A video that purportedly shows the wreckage of Air India Flight AI-171 after crashing in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, has circulated among social media users. The video shows a large amount of aircraft wreckage as well as destroyed homes and a scene reminiscent of an emergency, making it look genuine.

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Fact check:

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In our research, we took screenshots from the viral video and used reverse image search, which matched visuals from Universal Studios Hollywood. It became apparent that the video is actually from the most famous “War of the Worlds" set, located in Universal Studios Hollywood. The set features a 747 crash scene that was constructed permanently for Steven Spielberg's movie in 2005. We also found a YouTube video. The set has fake smoke poured on it, with debris scattered about and additional fake faceless structures built to represent a scene with a larger crisis. Multiple videos on YouTube here, here, and here can be found from the past with pictures of the tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, the Boeing 747 crash site, made for a movie.

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The Universal Studios Hollywood tour includes a visit to a staged crash site featuring a Boeing 747, which has unfortunately been misused in viral posts to spread false information.

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While doing research, we were able to locate imagery indicating that the video that went viral, along with the Universal Studios tour footage, provided an exact match and therefore verified that the video had no connection to the Ahmedabad incident. A side-by-side comparison tells us all we need to know to uncover the truth.

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Conclusion:

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The viral video claiming to show the aftermath of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad is entirely misleading and false. The video is showing a fictitious movie set from Universal Studios Hollywood, not a real disaster scene in India. Spreading misinformation like this can create unnecessary panic and confusion in sensitive situations. We urge viewers to only trust verified news and double-check claims before sharing any content online.

Claim: Massive explosion and debris shown in viral video after Air India crash.‍
Claimed On: Social Media‍
Fact Check: False and Misleading

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The Promotion and Regulation of Gaming Act, 2025: Jackpot of Progress or a Roll of the Regulatory Dice

September 3, 2025

In the past decade, India’s gaming sector has seen a surprising but swift advancement, which brought along millions of players and over billions in investments and has even been estimated to be at $23 billion. Whether it's fantasy cricket and Ludo apps, high-stakes poker, or rummy platforms, investing real money in online gaming and gambling has become a beloved hobby for many. Moreover, it not only gave a boost to the economy but also contributed to creative innovation and the generation of employment.

The real concern lies behind the glossy numbers, tales of addiction, financial detriment, and the never-ending game of cat and mouse with legal loopholes. The sector’s meteoric rise has raised various concerns relating to national financial integrity, regulatory clarity and consumer safety.

In light of this, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which was passed by Parliament and signed into law on August 22, stands out as a significant development. The Act, which is positioned as a consumer protection and sector-defining law, aims to distinguish between innovation and exploitation by acknowledging e-sport as a legitimate activity and establishing unambiguous boundaries around the larger gaming industry.

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Key Highlights of the Act

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Complete Ban on all games involving Real-Money: All e-games, whether based on skill or luck, that involve monetary stakes have been banned.
Prohibition of Ads: Promotion of such e-games has also been disallowed across all platforms.
Legal Ramifications: Operation of such games may lead to up to 3 years in prison with a 1 cr fine; Advertisement for the same may lead to up to 2 years in prison with a 50 lakh fine. However, in case of repeat offences, this may go up to 3-5 years in prison and 2 cr in fines.
Creation of Online Gaming Authority: The creation of a national-level regulatory body to classify and monitor games, register platforms and enforce the dedicated rules.
Support for eSports and Social & Educational games: All kinds of games that are non-monetary, promote social and educational growth, will not only be recognised but encouraged. Meanwhile, eSports will also gain official recognition under the Ministry of Sports.

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Positive Impacts

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Addressal & Tackling of Addiction and Financial Ruin: The major reason behind the ban is to reduce the cases of players, mainly youth, getting into gambling and losing huge amounts of money to betting apps and games, and to protect vulnerable users
Boost to eSports & Regulatory Clarity: The law not only legitimises the eSport sector but also provides opportunities for scholarship and other financial benefits, along with windows for professional tournaments and platforms on global stages. Along with this aims to bring about an order around e-games of skill versus luck.
Fraud Monitoring & Control: The law makes sure to block off avenues for money laundering, gambling and illegal betting networks.
Promotion of Safe Digital Ecosystem: Encouraging social, developmental and educational games to focus on skill, learning and fun.

Challenges

The fact that the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 is still in its early stages, which must be recognised. In the end, its effectiveness will rely not only on the letter of the law but on the strength of its enforcement and the wisdom of its application. The Act has the potential to safeguard the interests of at-risk youth from the dangers of gambling and its addiction, if it is applied carefully and clearly, all the while maintaining the digital ecosystem as a place of innovation, equity, and trust.

Blanket Ban: By imposing a blanket ban on games that have long been justified as skill-based like rummy or fantasy cricket, the Act runs the risk of suppressing respectable enterprises and centres of innovation. Many startups that were once hailed for being at the forefront of India’s digital innovation may now find it difficult to thrive in an unpredictable regulatory environment.
Rise of Illegal Platforms: History offers a sobering lesson, prohibition does not eliminate demand, it simply drives it underground. The prohibition of money games may encourage the growth of unregulated, offshore sites, where players are more vulnerable to fraud, data theft, and abuse and have no way to seek consumer protection.

Conclusion

The Act is definitely a tough and bold stand to check and regulate India’s digital gaming industry, but it is also a double-edged sword. It brings in much-needed consumer protection regulations in place and legitimises e-Sports. However, it also casts a long shadow over a successful economy and runs the risk of fostering a black market that is more harmful than the issue it was intended to address.

Therefore, striking a balance between innovation and protection, between law and liberty, will be considered more important in the coming years than the success of regulations alone. India’s legitimacy as a digital economy ready for global leadership, as well as the future of its gaming industry, will depend on how it handles this delicate balance.

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References:

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#Fact Check: Viral PM Scheme Scam and the Growing Menace of Fake Government Offers

October 23, 2025

Introduction

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There has been a recent surge of misinformation all over social media, claiming that every Indian ought to receive an allowance of ₹2,000 under some "Prime Minister's scheme." The message, which has been circulated far and wide on almost all platforms-WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, etc.-has urged users to click on an unfamiliar link to claim the allowance in their bank accounts.

It would seem like a very attractive offer, especially at a time when common citizens are coping with rising costs of living. But upon further examination, it turns out to be an outright online scam. NewsMobile fact-checked the claim and confirmed that no such scheme exists. Thus, the message circulating is a scam that aims to mislead common citizens.

Such an incident is not isolated. Over the years, fraudulent posts falsely offering benefits in the name of the government or well-known brands have been on the rise. These scams are not just about misinformation-they take advantage of trust, lure people into clicking, and sharing personal info that poses serious risks to financial and personal security.

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Anatomy of the Viral PM Scheme Scam

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The viral message received attention and was written in Hindi. It read:

“सभी नागरिकों को PM योजना के तहत दो हज़ार रुपए का भत्ता प्रदान किया गया है अपने bank खाते में प्राप्त करने के लिए click करें."

(English: “All citizens have been provided an allowance of ₹2000 under the PM scheme. Click to receive it in your bank account.”)

Beneath this was an odd link that, upon clicking through investigation, turned out to be not working and invalid. An examination of government sites, official handle accounts, and other such was done and no announcement for any such allowance was found.

This provides a neat explanation of a phishing attempt by which a scammer induces urgency and temptation in order to lure citizens into clicking a malicious link. While the link may no longer be active, it could very well have once redirected users to websites that harvest personal information such as Aadhaar numbers, bank details, or login credentials.

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The Broader Problem: Fake Government Scheme Scams

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Some scams have been exploiting the hoax gimmick of the ₹2,000 PM scheme into the wider trend. How do the con men work? They leverage the credibility of governmental initiatives to scam citizens. In the past, fake promises were made concerning free gas cylinders, cash allowances, subsidised rations, or even job opportunities.

During the COVID times, for instance, fake vaccination registration links and so-called relief scheme offers went viral, preying on the fears and vulnerabilities of ill-informed citizens. Likewise, false schemes associated with reputed companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, TATA Group, and Hermès have also gone viral, promising free gifts or allowances.

The one thing that makes scams associated with the government very dangerous is the exploitation of people's trust in authority. The common citizen is predisposed to believe the PM scheme or the Government Yojana because of the social credibility accorded to these announcements.

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How These Scams Operate

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These are scams where the creators intend deception and in the end, gain from defrauding a person. Fraudsters first create clickbait messages that are duly recorded to resemble official communications and often bear the government logos and bear a mix of Hindi-English text with the phrase "Pradhan Mantri Yojana" to make it sound legitimate. The messages then redirect users to bogus websites that really look very much like the government's portals, asking sick persons to enter personal information. Finally, as soon as they have obtained this data, the scammer uses it for identity theft, bank fraud, or sells it on the dark web. Social engineering does play a large role in these scams: here terms of urgency like limited time, last chance, and whatnot get created with the aim of pushing the targets to act on these without thinking. For maximum reach, victims are also asked to forward the message to their friends and family, causing the scammer to go viral across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram.

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Risks to Citizens

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Risks are serious and manifold to falling prey to these scams. The immediate kind of risk is financial loss: divulging bank account details, an OTP, or credentials may constitute providing attackers the power to drain funds therefrom. Another prevalent kind of identity theft occurs through hijacked Aadhaar, PAN, or personal information that subsequently finds its way into fake loans or SIM activations. Apart from monetary losses, opening malicious links might also make devices infected with spyware or ransomware, thereby invading privacy and security. Victims tend to experience a form of psychological trauma due to feelings of betrayal or humiliation of being deceived, thus discouraging them from reporting, which in turn enables such scams to go undetected.

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Best Practices for Prevention

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It is prudent to exercise good cyber hygiene and be on the lookout for such scams. The citizens should verify each statement against government-authorised websites like https://www.mygov.in or through press statements of the ministries prior to believing it. One should not click on suspicious links offering money, gifts, or subsidies. Red flags like poor grammar, an unofficial domain name, or too-good-to-be-true offers can enable one to identify the scam in time. Two-factor authentication, antivirus software updates, and securing devices can drastically lower the threat from the technical angle. Equally important is the reporting of issues: always report any suspicious activities to cybercrime.gov.in or to the nearest cyber cell so that the authorities may trace some pattern and issue advisories accordingly. Finally, one can do some good by sharing verified fact checks within their circles to build added strength against misinformation and scams.

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Policy and Community Role

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While individual awareness is important, collective action must be taken against these fake government scheme scams. Platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and X (Twitter) must tune up fraudsters' message detection mechanisms. In the meantime, Government Bodies must alert citizens periodically on new scams through their official handles/schemes and through community outreach.

Civil society and fact-checking agencies play an important role in dispelling frequently viral hoaxes. This work must be amplified to reach people's consciousness in regional languages for the very reason that in these terrain zones, forwarded messages are much more trusted.

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Conclusion

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The viral ₹2,000 PM scheme scam is a reminder that everything that is viral online cannot be trusted in toto. The scammers of the day are inventing newer scams to gain trust, spread misinformation, and extort innocent citizens.

The best defence will be awareness and alertness. Citizens must verify any claims through official channels before clicking on a link, sharing their data, or even acting upon it in any way. With proper cyber hygiene and avoiding suspicious messages, we can counterattack by reducing the percentage of impact that these scams may have and collaboratively build a secure digital environment.

As India pushes itself further into a digital ecosystem, both empowering and being resilient to cyber fraud is not a state of individual security, but a national agenda.

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References

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From Posts to Plumbing: How India Is Rewiring Big Tech

Introduction

The trigger: A technical glitch that became a systemic complaint

From takedown notices to systems audits

Messaging apps and the encryption problem

The future of "safe harbour"

Why this matters beyond the headlines

Conclusion

Sources

Related Blogs

Executive Summary:

Claim:

Fact check:

Conclusion:

Key Highlights of the Act

Positive Impacts

Challenges

Conclusion

References:

Introduction

Anatomy of the Viral PM Scheme Scam

The Broader Problem: Fake Government Scheme Scams

‍

How These Scams Operate

‍

Risks to Citizens

Best Practices for Prevention

Policy and Community Role

‍

Conclusion

References

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