The Union government has ordered social media platforms to censor all posts featuring the viral clip of two Manipur women paraded naked and sexually abused in Manipur. The sweep of the orders was wide, with immediate compliance from Twitter, Google, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; the posts deleted include discussions that featured blacked out or blurred screenshots of the clip where it was not possible to identify the victim.
A government official cited the need to prevent further inflammation of the situation in Manipur to justify the orders; the official did not directly address a question on why content that was discussing the incident was censored along with full uncensored clips. The official said the platforms had complied with takedown orders completely and immediately.
