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Nearly 15,000 instances of free speech violations were recorded in India in 2025 with Gujarat topping the list with 108 violations. Gujarat was followed closely by Uttar Pradesh (83), Kerala (78), Assam (62) and Jammu and Kashmir (51). In southern India, Karnataka recorded nine instances of free speech violations, followed by Andhra Pradesh (7), Tamil Nadu (6) and Telangana (5).
The data recorded by the Free Speech Collective’s (FSC) tracker also notes that 11,385 instances of censorship and 208 mass censorship and criminal cases were registered in 2025. The murder of eight journalists and one social media influencer and the arrest of 117 citizens also took place this year. The censorship figures recorded by the tracker also include mass requests made by the Indian government to withhold over 8,000 accounts on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) in India in May and another 2,354 accounts in July.
Censorship and Twitter
FSC’s report also notes that the withheld X accounts could be higher in view of the social media platform’s request to the Karnataka High Court challenging the Sahyog portal. ‘X’ stated that they received 29,118 government requests to remove content between January and June 2025 and complied with 26,641 of them. X’s Global Government Affairs Team announced in May 2025 that they had to block over 8,000 accounts on X following complaints at the Sahyog Portal.
“The ‘X’ accounts of news portals The Wire and Maktoob Media, Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin, The Indian Express Deputy Editor Muzameel Jaleel, political content creator Arpit Sharma, Reuters, and others were withheld in India,” FSC’s report noted. These accounts were withheld in view of the Pahalgam attack.
The Sahyog portal was set up by the Union Home Ministry in 2024 to remove “unlawful online content” by centralising communication with social media companies and online intermediaries under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The portal, however, has been used by both central and state authorities to block free speech and to take down all kind of criticism.
“Around 3,070 instances of internet shutdown, blocking of apps and 785 blocking orders were issued by the IT Ministry to various online intermediaries in the months of January and February 2025,” the report read, noting that India’s ranking in various global press freedom indices has fallen in the last few years.
“There were 40 attacks, of which 33 were on journalists. At least 14 of the 19 instances of harassment and 12 of the 17 threats were recorded against journalists doing their professional work,” the report further read while noting the deaths of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar and YouTube news creator Rajiv Prathap in Uttarakhand.
FSC noted the death of nine journalists in total in 2025. Two deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh, while one death each was recorded in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
Instances of sedition
The report mentioned that three satirists – Neha Singh Rathore, Madri Kakoti (aka Dr Medusa) and Shamita Yadav (aka Ranting Gola) were charged with sedition for their posts online questioning administrative and intelligence failures in connection with the Pahalgam attack in April 2025. Following the charges, Neha Singh approached the Allahabad High Court for anticipatory bail but was denied.
In August 2025, Assam police registered an FIR under sedition against The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan, consulting editor Karan Thapar, ex-governor of Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya Satyapal Mailk, former CM of Punjab in Pakistan Najam Sethi and editor of The Wire Hindi Ashutosh Bhardwaj. The FIR was a result of The Wire’s reporting on the Pahalgam attacks. In August, journalist Abhisar Sarma was charged with sedition by Assam police for his YouTube show, where he had reported on the controversial land deal given to Mahabal Cement by the Assam government. Comedian Kunal Kamra was also charged with criminal defamation for a joke against Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.
“In another instance of breach of privilege, the Privileges Committee of the Maharashtra
Legislative Council recommended a five-day jail sentence for four journalists – Ganesh Sonone, Harshada Sonone, Amol Nandurkar and Satish Deshmukh, the editor of the YouTube channel Satya Ladha and a local Congress volunteer Ankush Gawande, for allegedly defaming the NCP (Ajit Pawar) party’s MLC Amol Mitkari,” FSC noted.
FSC also mentioned the November 2025 raid on the Kashmir Times’ offices in Jammu and the revocation of investigative news portal The Reporter’s Collective’s non-profit, tax-exempt status.