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ExploreFree Speech TrackerTrack Violations across Categories, States & Years

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The Free Speech Tracker is a database that records free speech violations in India across various categories. Tracked violations can be searched across categories, states or years. Categories covered include Arrests, Attacks, Censorship, Harassment, Internet Control, Killings, Lawfare, Policies/Regulations, and Threats.

Please visit the About Us page for a guide to free speech violations tracked by FSC,

Numbers are liable to change and violations may be reclassified in case of discrepancies in reporting or updates due to developments in ongoing cases. In case of updates or corrections and to report free speech violations, please contact us.

[Note: The data included currently is for 2025 as updates for previous years is under process. For details of previous years, please go to the Reports section.]

Violations

States

Year

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Lawfare

Search warrant against Arunachal Times journalist Tongam Rina, lawyers and environmental activists

State: Arunachal Pradesh

Year: 2026

Date: October 29, 2026

Police in Arunachal Pradesh have applied for a search warrant on the premises and the electronic devices of Tongam Rina, Associate Editor of Arunachal Time,  lawyer Sunny Tayeng  and environmental activists  Otul Jerang and Tajong Talom. The lawyer represents the environmental activists who have been raising a voice on the environmental destruction over the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project.

On Oct 23, protests over the project took a violent turn and police investigating the violence say that material connected with the violence, including clothing, mobile phones and other devices, may be found in the premises of the journalist, the lawyer and the environmental activists.

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Censorship

Calcutta High Court Orders Social Media Sites To Remove Video Alleging Modi-Adani Stole India

State: West Bengal

Year: 2026

Date: October 26, 2026

The Calcutta High Court has restrained the circulation of a YouTube video titled “How Modi and Adani Stole India: The Friendship Files”, holding that the case appeared to fall within the exceptional category of defamation cases warranting a pre-trial injunction.YouTube, X and Instagram were directed to remove or disable access to the video.

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Censorship

Umar Khalid’s book removed from IISER Pune library to avoid ‘misunderstanding or unrest’

State: Maharashtra

Year: 2026

Date: October 26, 2026

Academia

A book by activist Umar Khalid, based on his doctoral thesis on the history of tribal societies under British rule, has been removed from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune library to avoid “any misunderstanding or unrest”, the institute said on Monday.

Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power, released earlier this year, examines the history of Singhbhum’s tribal societies under British rule and is based on Khalid’s PhD thesis at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Khalid has been in jail for over six years without trial in the 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case. Human rights organisations have criticised his prolonged incarceration without trial, while critics of the government have described him as a “political prisoner”.

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Internet Control

Reddit Geo-Blocks 26 items in India after GoI take down order

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2026

Date: October 21, 2026

Reddit has reportedly geo-blocked 26 posts in India following a government takedown order, according to Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which condemned the action as secretive, disproportionate and unlawful.

According to IFF, Reddit submitted the government order to the Lumen Database on October 21, confirming compliance with the request to restrict access to all 26 URLs within India. The notice, listed as Lumen notice 100411498, does not identify the specific law invoked or the government agency that issued the order.

On 21 October 2026, Reddit, Inc filed with the Lumen Database a government takedown order from India covering 26 URLs and complied, so that all 26 posts are now geo-blocked in India (Lumen notice 100411498). The notice names neither a law nor an agency, since its “Laws/Regulations” field is blank and the request is attributed only to an “Agency”. The 26 posts sit in 18 subreddits, from r/Northeastindia to r/IndianDefense and r/myanmar, and were catalogued on 24 October by @geoblockedindia in a thread that also carries images of the notice. Irrational censorship does not advance national interest Nearly all of the blocked posts concern the India–China border.

They include open-source verification of PLA footage from the June 2020 Galwan clash, satellite imagery reported by Indian newsrooms, a Caravan essay, a TRT World report on Beijing’s claim over Arunachal Pradesh, maps ranging from the one China draws to users’ sketches of proposed new states, and a question put to Chinese users. Several are five or six years old, and three had already been deleted by their authors.

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Police Clear Left Book Stalls Across West Bengal

State: West Bengal

Year: 2026

Date: October 17, 2026

Hundreds of Left activists and democratic voices hit the streets to resist the BJP-RSS regime’s bulldozer attack on the progressive bookstall. People’s history, resistance and the struggle for equality cannot be crushed by bulldozers!

Book stalls run by Left parties have been vandalised, burnt and removed across the state during the festival. Left leaders blame BJP workers for the attacks, and accuse a section of the police of using a narrow Calcutta high court order to clear stalls statewide.

Police and civic officials continued removing Left book stalls across West Bengal on Saturday (October 17) evening while 19 people were crushed to death at a Durga Puja pandal in North Kolkata, which was recently taken over by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-controlled committee and residents complained that there were barely any police to manage the crowd in the stampede site.

Book stalls run by Left parties have been vandalised, burnt and removed across the state during the festival. Left leaders blame BJP workers for the attacks, and accuse a section of the police of using a narrow Calcutta high court order to clear stalls statewide.

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Attacks

Police snatches phone from Molitics reporter Geetanjali Dubey

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: October 12, 2026

Attacks – Journalists

Molitics shared on X:

जंतर-मंतर पर चल रहे प्रोटेस्ट के दौरान पुलिस द्वारा राइट विंग के उपद्रवियों को बचाने और सवाल पूछने पर Molitics की रिपोर्टर @Geet_reports का फोन पटकने की घटना सामने आई है।

(Translated by X to: During the ongoing protests at Jantar Mantar, an incident has come to light where the police protected right-wing troublemakers and snatched the phone from Molitics reporter @Geet_reports for asking questions.)

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Lawfare

3 Express journalists detained by Delhi cops, released 12 km away

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: October 11, 2026

Lawfare, Detention: Journalists

Delhi Police detained three Indian Express Hindi journalists at Connaught Place on Sunday while they were reporting the developments of the second day of protests called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Journalists Shashwat, Siya and Vijay Kumar, displayed their valid press cards, but were taken into detention and forced into buses by police personnel.

They were later released at Chhatrasal Stadium after around 45 minutes and nearly 12 kilometres away. The latest protests are against alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The police did not cite any specific legal provision or reason for detaining the journalists. The incident comes amid a wider crackdown on protesters in the national capital, where police detained around 7,000 people on October 10, including journalists, lawyers and civil society members.

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Lawfare

Thenewsminute journalist Nidhi Suresh detained

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: October 11, 2026

Lawfare, Detention: Journalists

Dhanya Rajendran, Editor-in-chief of thenewsminute, shared how “Our colleague @NidhiSuresh_ was detained around 3 pm. She was taken in the same van as @neha_aisa. M The cops told the women they could leave around 6.30 pm, but the women are there demanding the men be released too”

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Lawfare

The Hindu’s journalist was detained from Connaught Place

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: October 11, 2026

Lawfare, Detention: Journalists

Hindustan Times journalist Hemani Bhandari shared how The Hindu’s journalist was detailed by Delhi Police.

“The Hindu’s journalist was detained from Connaught Place till police personnel realised she was a reporter with TH and released her before the bus moved.”

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Lawfare

Hindustan Reporter Ashish Singh and photojournalist detained

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: October 11, 2026

Lawfare, Detention: Journalists

Delhi Police on Sunday detained at least 12 journalists — including a reporter from Hindustan, a Hindustan Times sister publication — who were covering the second day of protests in New Delhi against the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Hindustan reporter describes being detained
Hindustan reporter Ashish Singh, 27, said he was detained from RK Ashram Marg, where he was covering the protest called by the All India Students Association (AISA) around 2.30pm. He said was pushed around and injured, despite wearing an ID which clearly identified him as a member of the press.

“I was recording the detentions on my camera when I felt police pushing me. They also hurt me with some sort of pointed thing, maybe like a knuckle. I turned and told them not once but many times that I’m a HT reporter and I was also wearing my ID card, which I showed them. But they didn’t listen to me,” he said.

He was soon pushed onto the bus with a photojournalist. “I was far from protesters and not even obstructing police in their duty, but they still misbehaved with me.”

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Showing 1-10 of 936 results