Congress alleges Instagram blocked Rahul Gandhi-Vijay reels, Centre reacts

Congress alleged that Instagram first blocked Rahul Gandhi and Vijay's viral oath-taking ceremony video, and later blocked Gandhi's Instagram story in which he flagged the issue.

In Short

• Gandhi shared photos and reel from Vijay's oath-taking ceremony in Chennai
• Congress alleges Instagram blocked Rahul Gandhi's post with Tamil Nadu CM Vijay
• Centre denies allegations, calls it a technical error on Instagram's part

The Congress alleged that Instagram has “blocked” a reel and photo post shared by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi featuring him alongside Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay, claiming it violates rules framed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The Centre, however, denied the allegation and attributed the issue to a technical error on the platform’s end.

Gandhi was in Chennai on Sunday to attend Vijay’s oath-taking ceremony as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as Congress backed TVK to form government in Tamil Nadu. Following the event, the Congress leader shared several photographs and a reel capturing moments from the ceremony across social media platforms.

Congress leader and Gandhi’s aide Srivatsa claimed in a post on X that Instagram had “blocked” Gandhi’s reel and photo post featuring him and Vijay from the swearing-in ceremony.

According to Srivatsa, the reel had garnered 12 million views within an hour, while the photo post had reportedly reached 46 million users before access to the content was allegedly restricted.

"Meta cites no reason as to why his account has become inaccessible. The “glitch” is because of MEITY rules! Rahul Gandhi’s social media accounts have been suppressed for a long time. His X reach, YouTube views, Insta followers have all been suppressed,” Srivatsa alleged.

AICC national secretary in charge of communication and publicity Ruchira Chaturvedi also alleged that Meta first blocked Rahul Gandhi and Vijay’s viral video from the oath-taking ceremony and later blocked an Instagram story posted by the Congress leader in which he raised the issue of the video being blocked.

However, the government denied any intervention in the matter. Responding to the allegations, sources in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said claims linking the ministry to the action were incorrect.

“It is clarified that MeitY had nothing to do with this action. It was because of the platform’s own internal system mistakenly flagging the post for blocking, which has now been restored,” a source in the ministry told news agency PTI.

Government sources maintained that the issue arose due to Instagram’s internal moderation system and not because of any direction or rule issued by the ministry. The video was restored later.

- Ends