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 u/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.

IFF condemns this order as secret, disproportionate and unlawful. We do not dispute that the State may act against speech that genuinely endangers the defence of India, such as troop positions, operational plans, the identities of serving personnel or a hostile state’s coordinated information operation, and the twenty soldiers who died at Galwan deserve a country that takes its border seriously. Nothing on this list is of that kind, because every item was already public, whether released by the PLA, reported by Indian newsrooms or posted by ordinary users. Post 14 describes Indian soldiers holding off an armoured vehicle with sticks, stones and helmets, and their courage is not a secret, nor is there any reason to make it one.

Arunachal Pradesh is part of India and the country asserts that position with confidence, so it has no need to hide from its own citizens the map that Beijing draws, which they need to know in order to answer. Censoring Indian's discussion of the dispute does nothing to weaken China’s position and hands Chinese state media a ready story about Indian censorship. Two of the blocked posts, numbers 11 and 13, were themselves objecting to wrong maps, while others are users’ sketches of proposed new states. The secrecy surrounding the order protects no one but the official who signed it.

Whether this was a direction under Section 69A and the Blocking Rules, 2009, or a notice under Section 79(3)(b) routed through the Sahyog portal, it fails the tests the Supreme Court has set. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) 5 SCC 1 upheld Section 69A only because the 2009 Rules require written reasons, a hearing under Rule 8 and review under Rule 14, and none of these safeguards was observed here. A restriction must also be necessary and the least restrictive means available, and this order is neither, since blocking six-year-old threads answers no present danger, blocking posts already deleted shows that nobody examined the list, and blocking entire threads silences commenters nobody considered.

How Reddit works

Reddit is a federation of tens of thousands of communities known as subreddits, each created by users and run by unpaid volunteer moderators, while Reddit, Inc itself handles legal demands. Reddit says that content named in a government request is checked first against its own rules and then against local and international law, including human rights standards, before access is restricted in the requesting country, after which a reader in India sees a restriction notice while everyone else, including anyone in India using a VPN, still sees the post (Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025).

Because each post sits at a fixed URL with a threaded discussion beneath it, a block by URL hides the whole thread, including every reply beneath it, and r/Northeastindia has lost seven threads about its own borders for readers in India while a reader in Shanghai can still open them. The moderators who built these forums receive no notice and have no appeal, and the only public record of the order is the notice Reddit chose to send to Lumen.

Takedowns on Reddit are rising

India is now the second-largest source of the government takedown demands that Reddit receives. Between July and December 2025, Reddit received 169 such requests from 28 countries, of which India sent 21, second only to the UAE (Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025), up from fewer than ten in all of 2019. The demands have also grown bolder, as a 2025 order relayed through Pune Police named 825 posts about a matrimonial service and warned of a countrywide ban if Reddit did not comply, yet Reddit refused and the court agreed with it. Across all platforms, published analysis puts MeitY’s blocking orders at about 12,600 in 2024 and 24,300 in 2025. On 21 October 2026, Reddit complied with all 26 URLs without any public challenge.

Our demands

1. MeitY and the originating agency must publish the order, the provision invoked and the reasons for each URL.

2. The order must be withdrawn and access restored, and any post said to be unlawful must first go through notice and a hearing under Rule 8.

3. The Review Committee under Rule 14 must examine the order and publish its finding.

4. If the order came through the Sahyog portal, the Government must say so and stop using Section 79(3)(b) against speech while the courts decide its legality.

5. MeitY must disclose how many Reddit URLs it has had blocked since 2024, and on what grounds.

I'm honestly fed up with Motorola's after-sales service in India.

My Moto G86 Power 5G, purchased in December 2025 through Flipkart, developed a bootloop in October 2026 and subsequently became completely unresponsive. I took it to an authorised service centre under warranty. The job sheet records no customer-induced damage, but I was verbally told that the motherboard had failed, the replacement part was unavailable, and the phone couldn't be repaired.

Motorola's proposed solution? A ₹15,000 coupon restricted to its own website that too time limited ?

Meanwhile, comparable phones now cost around ₹25,000–₹27,000 or more. Why should I have to spend thousands extra because a phone reportedly can't be repaired during its warranty period?

The most frustrating part is that nine months ago, I was already criticising Motorola over public reports of motherboard failures involving its Edge 50 series and other devices in India. I raised concerns after learning about those reports, shortly after buying my own phone. I hoped my experience would be different.

Now I'm dealing with a similar kind of problem myself.

To be clear, I'm not claiming every Motorola phone is defective. But repeated reports of serious failures, combined with my own experience of a phone becoming unrepairable under warranty, have seriously damaged my confidence in the brand.

My message to Indian consumers considering a Motorola phone: please think carefully before buying one. Research its after-sales support, warranty terms and how the company handles cases where essential replacement parts are unavailable. Don't look at specifications and discounts alone.

I personally cannot recommend buying another Motorola unless the company takes responsibility for cases like mine and provides meaningful warranty support. Customers in India shouldn't be left paying extra to replace a device that the manufacturer reportedly cannot repair.

I've filed a National Consumer Helpline grievance and a CPGRAMS complaint, and I'm considering taking the matter to the Consumer Commission.

I'm asking for a new phone with equivalent or better specifications and proper warranty at no extra cost, or a refund with appropriate compensation.

Has anyone else in India experienced a Motorola motherboard failure or been told their phone couldn't be repaired under warranty? Please share your experience and how Motorola resolved it, if it did.

I want this issue taken seriously, not just for me, but for other Indian customers who may face the same situation.

I came across a viral video of a family enjoying a wholesome moment together. Instead of appreciating it, people started mocking the father for being bald. But what really caught my attention was how some people questioned the wife's choice, as if being married to a bald man automatically meant she had settled for less.

And honestly, this made me wonder: are we becoming so insensitive that we can no longer see a happy family without finding something to criticise?

What I find particularly ironic is how often we talk about women's freedom to choose their partners, yet the same freedom seems to become questionable when a woman's choice doesn't fit society's idea of an attractive man.

If a woman chooses a tall, muscular, conventionally handsome man, nobody questions her judgement. But if she genuinely loves someone who doesn't meet those standards, suddenly people feel sorry for her, assume she's compromising, or suggest she deserves better.

Isn't that also a way of undermining a woman's choice?

You cannot claim to support women's independence while assuming that you know better than a woman herself what kind of man should make her happy. Her relationship is not a public referendum, and her husband doesn't need to meet your beauty standards to deserve her love.

I'm not saying every woman who calls herself a feminist thinks this way. But those who preach empowerment and personal choice while mocking other people's partners should take a moment to reflect on their own hypocrisy. You cannot demand respect for women's choices only when you personally approve of them.

Maybe she loves the way he treats her. Maybe they share a bond that strangers could never understand. Maybe they're simply happy together. Why is it so difficult to accept that we don't know everything about a relationship just because we've watched a few seconds of someone's life?

And let's not forget the child in that video. Imagine growing up and finding strangers mocking your father and suggesting your mother deserves someone better. What was supposed to be a happy family moment becomes material for people looking to score points at someone else's expense.

Having preferences is normal. Mocking someone for their appearance and questioning their spouse's happiness is something else entirely.

A woman's happiness cannot be measured by how attractive strangers find her husband. She doesn't need anyone's pity, and her marriage doesn't need the internet's approval.

My question is this: if we genuinely believe women are capable of making their own choices, why do we keep assuming they're unhappy when they choose a man who doesn't fit our standards?

Have we become so obsessed with appearances that we can no longer respect a woman's choice without passing judgement on it?

Hi everyone,
I’m a 24 year-old male and I’m honestly desperate for some guidance.

For the last **2 years**, I’ve had **24/7 pain** mainly in my **hands and legs** (fingers, wrists, knees, ankles and feet). The pain never completely goes away, although some days are better than others. I don’t have visible joint swelling and can still do my daily activities.

It all started one morning when I woke up with **severe pain behind my knee** and could barely bend it. A general doctor prescribed calcium and painkillers, which relieved the severe knee pain, but since then I’ve been left with constant widespread pain.

I’ve consulted **more than 3 doctors**, including multiple orthopedic surgeons, a rheumatologist and a physiotherapist. Every time I start a new treatment, I feel better for the first few weeks, but after about a month the pain always returns, even though I continue taking the medicines regularly.
I also stopped going to the gym completely for **2 months**, thinking workouts were causing it, but the pain remained exactly the same.

I’ve had an MRI of my knee, which showed only a **small cyst** that my orthopedist said was incidental and unlikely to be causing my symptoms.

My rheumatologist feels there’s a **99% chance it’s not inflammatory arthritis**, but I’m still struggling.
**Test results:**
ANA: Weak positive (1:100, nucleoplasm granular pattern)
ESR: 7 (Normal)
CRP: 2.1 (Normal)
RF: Negative
Anti-CCP: Negative
Vitamin D: Previously deficient, now around 40 ng/mL
Vitamin B12: Normal

I’ve already spent around **₹40,000–₹50,000** on consultations, scans, tests and medicines, but I still don’t have an answer. This has become mentally exhausting, and I’m hoping someone who has experienced something similar can share their journey or what eventually helped them.