New Delhi, March 21 -- The ministry of railways has sent at least seven content takedown notices to social media platforms since gaining direct enforcement powers in December, targeting videos ranging from overcrowded Maha Kumbh Special trains to train vandalism incidents, according to documents reviewed by HT.

Three of these notices, sent to X (formerly Twitter), YouTube/Google, and Facebook/Instagram, have become part of X's legal challenge against the government's use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act for content blocking. In its petition, X argued that none of the targeted content meets the restrictions on free speech under Article 19(2) of the Constitution.

These three Section 79(3)(b) notices are different from...