3,401 Social Media Links, Sites Taken Down Over Cybercrimes!

3,401 social media links and websites have been taken down due to cybercrimes.

Based on recommendations from I4C and state law enforcement agencies, over 3,000 URLs and 595 apps have been blocked under Section 69A of the IT Act.

On Wednesday, CEO Rajesh Kumar stated that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has taken down 3,401 social media links, websites, and WhatsApp groups since March 14. This action followed I4C being designated as the agency of the Home Ministry empowered to issue takedown orders to intermediaries regarding illegal content related to cybercrimes under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. Kumar mentioned that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, complied with over 90% of these takedown orders. However, compliance rates for other significant online intermediaries were not disclosed.

I4C is the second agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to be designated as such. The National Crime Records Bureau was notified in 2018. According to a report by HT on February 4, Section 79(3)(b) is a provision that legal experts argue has created ambiguity regarding who can instruct intermediaries to remove content, the reasons for doing so, and whether such directives can be contested. A significant issue raised was whether central ministries and state governments must explicitly notify agencies in the official gazette to authorize them to issue takedown notices to intermediaries, including social media companies.

Since its establishment in October 2018, at the recommendation of I4C and state law enforcement agencies, over 3,000 URLs and 595 apps have been blocked under Section 69A of the IT Act for their involvement in cybercrimes. The blocked websites encompass phishing links, websites related to illegal betting, fraudulent apps and websites, and others used for scamming purposes.

Section 69A allows the IT ministry to block content for national security and related reasons upon recommendations from various ministries and states, while Section 79(3)(b) permits notified agencies to have unlawful content removed, thus reducing the threshold for content blocking.

Kumar stated that cybercriminals exploit three systems to perpetrate scams and crimes: the telecom infrastructure (utilizing SIM cards and mobile phones), the internet (through fake online advertisements, apps, and websites), and financial services (such as mule accounts, etc.).

Furthermore, in the last four months, I4C and state law enforcement agencies have successfully frozen nearly 3,25,000 mule accounts involved in cybercrimes. Additionally, approximately 5,30,000 SIM cards and 80,848 IMEI numbers have been suspended or revoked since July 2023.