India's Cartoonists Built Online Audiences. Now Platform Restrictions Are Squeezing Their Satire

For the second time in three weeks, the cartoonist Satish Acharya has become effectively invisible on Instagram inside India. The 55-year-old found out on Tuesday that his account had again been briefly blocked in the country, he says without any explanation from the platform. Anyone in India who tried to reach his profile saw a notice that it was unavailable under the country's Information Technology Rules.

The first block ran from 28 September to 6 October. During that period, users in India could neither find his profile through search nor open it through a web link. Acharya wrote to Meta, Instagram's parent company, and got no reply. He says he was preparing to go to court when the account reappeared in early October. Earlier this week it was blocked again, this time for three days. He told the BBC that Meta platforms had been limiting the reach of his cartoons for some years, but that losing his entire profile in India left him a little sad.

A few weeks earlier, another cartoonist, Manjul, discovered that Instagram had restricted one of his posts, which criticised India's election commission over its controversial revision of voter rolls. His profile stayed accessible. The two cases have sharpened worries that legal orders are being used to restrict political satire, with cartoonists saying they are given little explanation. The IT Rules let authorities and courts order platforms to remove or restrict content. The government says they help tackle unlawful material; artists and free-speech advocates say they can choke a long tradition of satire. Meta told the BBC it may temporarily restrict accounts to comply with the rules, but did not explain why it acted on Acharya's account or Manjul's post.

The timing matters, critics say, because humour has become a visible part of political dissent, particularly among younger Indians. Memes and Gen-Z humour helped fuel protests over education and jobs in July, which ended with the resignation of the education minister. Online argument has also grown over the voter-roll revision, which removed 130 million names. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has itself urged ministers to build up their online presence and reach younger audiences.

Technology policy expert Prateek Waghre says the government is leaning more on legal orders to regulate online content. The Indian Express reported, citing a right-to-information request, that agencies sent nearly 195,000 blocking and content-restriction orders to platforms including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube between March and July through the federal Sahyog portal. The figures do not show how many posts were ultimately restricted or removed, and the BBC has not seen the original response. Waghre says some platforms, Meta in particular, seem more willing to comply, while X appears more willing to push back, though thin public data makes comparison hard. Meta declined to comment on that assessment. Media outlets also reported this week that authorities asked Meta to ensure its systems do not steer users toward a single or limited set of narratives, and to tighten checks on content that could cause public disorder or incite violence. The BBC has asked India's IT ministry about the restrictions and the reported instructions, and has had no response.

Satire has a long history in India, and so do efforts to curb it. Cartoons have been a staple of Indian journalism since independence, and RK Laxman's Common Man became one of its best-known figures. During the Emergency of the 1970s, Abu Abraham kept drawing even as dozens of his cartoons were stamped "not passed by censors." In 2012, Aseem Trivedi was arrested on sedition charges over cartoons allegedly mocking the constitution; the charges were later dropped. India ranks 157th in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, and the government rejects criticism that it pressures the media, saying the press remains free and vibrant. Comedian Kunal Kamra, known for jokes about Modi and his party, has faced threats, cancelled shows and legal action.

Acharya says he has applied the same principle throughout his career. Before 2014 many of his cartoons targeted the Congress-led government, and BJP leaders shared them. He says he never faced official restrictions under earlier governments, only occasional trolling. Now his satire mostly targets Modi's government. Sandeep Adhwaryu, a cartoonist at a leading Indian newspaper, says cartoonists are among the default opposition, because the craft is to oppose. He adds that even in newsrooms, artists may soften captions, avoid subjects or hesitate before submitting, and that such self-censorship can become normal without any explicit instruction.

Social media let independent cartoonists reach audiences without newspapers. Manjul says that is why they can draw: they are tied to no mainstream outlet. But it creates a dependence on platforms. Rachita Taneja, creator of the popular Instagram comic Sanitary Panels, says her career would not exist without the internet, yet calls it a double-edged sword run by a for-profit business answerable to advertisers. She believes Meta's compliance reflects commercial priorities, not concern for users' rights; Meta declined to comment. When Acharya's account was first blocked, Taneja drew a stick-figure cartoon in solidarity. Adhwaryu likens satire to a shape-shifting virus that keeps mutating in response to its environment. It will find its way, he says. What to watch: whether Meta explains its actions, and whether the IT ministry answers.