New Delhi: A Bengal CPI(M) leader’s satirical Facebook post speculating on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of a teleprompter during his midnight social media video message today was taken down by Meta within five minutes of it going up.“We restricted access to this content through an automated system implemented pursuant to legal requirements under India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,” the message received by Shatarup Ghosh on his Facebook account on July 24 says.Ghosh’s post made reference to a popular Bengali song to ask, “E tumi kemon tumi chokher taraye ayena dhoro?”. Translated, the words roughly mean, “Who are you, who holds a mirror in your eye?”The reference, ostensibly, is to Modi’s alleged use of a teleprompter to read the message he gave in a video statement in which he said that “paper leaks are no trivial matter” and that his government had taken several steps to stop paper leaks in the last two months. The video which came after midnight was shot on selfie mode, in what many have speculated was an effort to appeal to Gen Z, which has been an integral part of the protests against the education system, calling for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Modi did not mention the fact that in Delhi and Mumbai, protests have been met with police brutality.Posting the image of Facebook’s takedown notice, Ghosh wrote on Facebook, “Good to see the government active on at least some fronts!”“The effort that goes to prevent the image of Modi’s teleprompter getting leaked, if half of this would go in preventing exam paper leaks, the country would not have seen so many students dying by suicide,” Ghosh told The Wire.The Wire has reported on how the Ministry of Home Affairs is now able to directly ensure takedowns of news, analysis, comedy, satire or commentary (loosely dubbed as ‘content’) from the internet. According to the MHA’s annual report for the year 2024-25, “1,11,185 suspicious online content has been blocked under Section 79(3)(b) of IT Act,” till March 31, 2025.Section 79(1) of the IT Act is meant to shield online portals as well as social media intermediaries (tech companies like X, Meta and YouTube) from legal liability for content posted by users, but Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act says that the shield will not apply if they fail to take down the content despite being flagged by government authorities.With the advent of the Sahyog portal, the website meant for a spectrum of government agencies to issue takedowns, as reported by The Wire, it is no longer just the remit of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting or Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to flag and ask for takedowns of what is deemed inappropriate. The Sahyog portal allows the Union home ministry a remarkable ease of takedowns, and even bulk takedowns, almost automating the procedure pressurising “intermediaries” to censor content.