Instagram has restricted The Reporters’ Collective’s story on the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) internal records of the 2024 elections twice, citing the IT Rules. It first restricted the story within two hours of the outlet posting it. When the outlet posted about the restriction, the platform removed that post too.

“Instagram restricted our story on the ECI’s internal records of 2024 elections within two hours, citing the IT Rules. And when we posted about the restriction, that post was removed too,” the Collective said on X on November 10.

The Reporters’ Collective then posted the story on the platform again. “We reposted our story on Instagram again and within 15 minutes it was restricted again,” reporter Sumedha Mittal said on X.

The Collective hasn’t said who sought the restriction or which provision of the IT Rules Instagram cited.

Instagram restricted our story on the ECI’s internal records of 2024 elections within two hours, citing the IT Rules. And when we posted about the restriction, that post was removed too.

Watch and share this video to see what @TweetSumedha & @VenkateshNSS reported on. pic.twitter.com/mv5yageQ8s

— the reporters' collective (@reporters_co) November 10, 2026

What did the story report?

The story, by Sumedha Mittal and Venkatesh Nayak, says votes counted didn’t match votes cast in 51 seats across Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in the 2024 elections. The reporters drew on constituency-level reports that returning officers filed with the ECI.

  • Mismatched totals: In 32 seats, the count didn’t match the votes polled. Counted votes fell short in 12 seats and exceeded the votes polled in 20.
  • Missing records: In 19 seats, the reports recorded “nil” for the number of voters who entered polling booths.
  • No re-polls: The ECI’s rules treat such mismatches as possible malpractice, but the ECI held no re-poll in any of the 51 seats.

The ECI didn’t answer the reporters’ collective’s questions, according to the story.

Previous restrictions: Instagram has restricted several posts about the ECI since September. MediaNama is tracking them in our live tracker.

  • LiveLaw: In October, Instagram restricted a LiveLaw reel on the ECI’s affidavit to the Supreme Court, citing only a “legal request.” It restored the reel later.
  • Cartoonist Manjul: Instagram restricted his cartoon on the Election Commission in India “pursuant to a notice from the Government of India / Law Enforcement.”
  • Cockroach Janta Party (CJP): Founder Abhijeet Dipke said Instagram was taking down hundreds of reels demanding Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
  • Keywords: SFLC.in alleged that Instagram was removing posts containing words such as “ECI” and “SIR.” Neither Meta nor the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has said whether Instagram blocks keywords at the government’s request.

Why it matters: Platforms usually restrict content in India after the government issues a blocking order under Section 69A of the IT Act or a takedown notice under Section 79(3)(b). Instagram’s notices in these cases haven’t named the order, the law or who asked. Instagram restricted the repost within 15 minutes, which raises the questions, whether it reviews each post or blocks content automatically.

  • Who asked? Did the government or a law enforcement agency send a notice about the Collective’s story, or did Meta act on its own?
  • Which provision? Which part of the IT Rules did Instagram cite?
  • How did Instagram detect the repost? Did a person review it, or did an automated system catch it?
  • Why remove the second post? On what basis did Instagram remove the post that flagged the restriction?

Also Read:

The post Instagram restricts Reporters’ Collective story on ECI vote-count twice, cites IT Rules appeared first on MEDIANAMA.