Citing threat to public order, MHA orders blocking of Manipur killing video

Based on a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), social media intermediaries such as YouTube, Meta, and Google have been directed to take down the viral video of the January 21 killing of a 29-year-old man in Manipur’s Churachandpur, on the ground that its circulation was “likely to disturb public order”.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the blocking order on January 22 after receiving the request from the MHA’s Nodal Officer. “The order has been issued u/s 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009,” the MeitY order said.

Mayanglambam Rishikant Singh was abducted and shot dead by unidentified assailants, who recorded the killing on camera, in Churachandpur on January 21. Singh, a resident of Kakching and a member of the Meitei community, was visiting his wife, who belongs the Kuki-Zo community and lives in Churanchandpur district.

Singh had been working in Nepal for the past two years and had arrived in Churachandpur on December 19 via Aizawl in neighbouring Mizoram to visit his wife.

The Manipur Government moved a writ petition before the Manipur High Court, stating that a video of the killing had gone viral on social media and was likely to disturb public order. The State sought directions to social media platforms—including Meta Platforms Inc, Resident Grievance Officer for YouTube, Google LLC, Google India Digital Services Pvt. Ltd. and WhatsApp Inc.—to take down the video.

Through the petition filed by the Commissioner (Home), the State also prayed for a direction to the Union of India to block access to the content. Acting on the plea, Judge A Guneshwar Sharma on January 22 issued notice to the Union Government.

“As per the MHA, the URLs flagged to be blocked are from social media platforms and are disseminating videos of the brutal killing of a man in Manipur, with the potential to disturb public order,” the court said. The Manipur Government requested that notices to social media platforms be served through the Director General (DIT), Cyber Laws & e-Security, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt of India (MeitY), the regulating authorities.

“Accordingly, the State petitioner is permitted to serve notice to respondent Nos. 4 to 8 through respondent No.2 (DIT) and to the e-mail address of the respective respondent Nos. 4 to 8 (social media platforms). Since the MeitY has already acted upon the matter on receipt of information from the Nodal Officer, MHA, the immediate plea of the State petitioner is taken care of,” the court said, posting the case for hearing on February 18. It also directed the MHA and the MeitY to submit updated information on or before the next date about the progress of the January 22 blocking order.