Over 9,000 social media accounts blocked in 2020, Parliament told

As many as 9,849 accounts across social media platforms were blocked in 2020, almost a three-fold increase than those blocked in 2019, the Centre told Parliament on Wednesday.

The information was shared by the ministry of electronics and information technology in Lok Sabha after Congress MP, Mohammad Faizal P.P sought to know year-wise details of the number of blocked accounts on social media platforms under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act since 2014.

“…Government has directed for blocking of 471, 500, 633, 1,385, 2,799, 3,635 and 9,849 number of Accounts/URLs during the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively,” the minisry said.