India's cartoonists built an audience online - now their posts are being restricted

India's cartoonists built an audience online - now their posts are being restricted

Satish Acharya is among Indian cartoonists whose work has recently been restricted by Meta

For the second time in three weeks, Indian cartoonist Satish Acharya found himself effectively invisible on Instagram in his own country.

The 55-year-old said he discovered on Tuesday that his account had once again been briefly blocked in India, apparently without any explanation from the platform.

Only a few weeks earlier, another cartoonist, Manjul, found that Instagram had restricted a post criticising India's election commission over its controversial revision of voter rolls. His profile, however, stayed accessible.

These incidents have fuelled concern about the use of legal orders to curb political satire in India, with cartoonists saying they are often given little or no explanation for why their work has been blocked.

Acharya's account was first restricted from 28 September to 6 October, during which users in India could neither locate his profile through search nor open it via a web link.

Anyone attempting to view his profile saw a notice saying it was unavailable under India's Information Technology Rules.

Those rules allow authorities and courts to order social media platforms to remove or restrict content.

The government says they are meant to address unlawful material, but artists and free-speech advocates warn they can suppress India's long tradition of political satire.

"Meta platforms have been restricting the reach of my cartoons for some years," Acharya told the BBC. "But when my entire profile was restricted in India, I was a little sad."

He contacted Meta, Instagram's parent company, but says he got no response. He says he was preparing to go to court when his account became accessible again in early October, only to be blocked again earlier this week for three days.

In a statement, Meta told the BBC that it may temporarily restrict accounts to comply with India's IT Rules, but it did not explain the specific reasons for restricting Acharya's account or Manjul's post.

Critics say the restrictions come as humour and satire are playing a more visible role in political dissent in India, especially among younger people.

Memes and Gen-Z humour helped drive protests over education and jobs in July, which led to the resignation of India's education minister. Online debate has also intensified over a controversial revision of voter rolls that removed 130 million names.

The political importance of social media has not been lost on the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged ministers to strengthen their online presence and reach younger audiences.

At the same time, technology policy expert Prateek Waghre says the government is increasingly using legal orders to control online content.

The figures, obtained through a right-to-information request, do not show how many posts were ultimately restricted or removed.

Waghre says some platforms, especially Meta, "seem more willing to comply", while X appears more willing to push back. But limited public data makes comparisons difficult. Meta declined to comment on his assessment.

The government has also reportedly sought closer scrutiny of how social media platforms recommend content.

Political satire, of course, has a long history in India - as do efforts to suppress it.

Cartoons have been a part of Indian journalism since independence, with

But cartoonists have also faced censorship. During the Emergency in the 1970s, when civil liberties were suspended and the press was tightly controlled,

Abu Abraham kept drawing, even as dozens of his cartoons were stamped "not passed by censors".

Today, concerns about restrictions on political expression go beyond cartoonists. India ranks 157th in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, while critics accuse the government of increasing pressure on independent media. The government rejects that criticism, saying India's media remains free and vibrant.

Comedians have also faced controversy over political satire.

For cartoonists, though, challenging those in power is central to the job.

"We are among the default opposition," says Sandeep Adhwaryu, a cartoonist at a leading Indian newspaper.

"The nature of the craft is to oppose," he says, adding that cartoonists, like journalists, must question whoever is in power.

Acharya says he has followed that principle throughout his career. Before 2014, many of his cartoons targeted the Congress-led government and were shared by BJP leaders.

"I never faced official restrictions on my cartoons during the previous governments, though there would be some trolling occasionally," he says.

Now, with the BJP in power, much of his satire is aimed at Modi's government.

Social media has enabled independent cartoonists like Acharya to reach audiences without depending on newspapers or other traditional outlets.

"We are not associated with newspapers or any mainstream media. That's why we can draw," says Manjul.

But that freedom brings a new vulnerability - reliance on platforms that can restrict their work or cut them off from their audiences.

No one knows this better than Rachita Taneja, the creator of the hugely popular Instagram comic Sanitary Panels.

"My career would not have existed without the internet," she told the BBC. Yet she calls social media a double-edged sword.

"At the end of the day it's a for-profit endeavour that answers to advertisers," she says.

Taneja says Meta's compliance with Indian government requests reflects the company's commercial priorities rather than concern for users' rights. Meta declined to comment.

Even cartoonists working in traditional newsrooms face pressure. Adhwaryu says artists may soften captions, avoid certain topics or think twice before submitting a cartoon. Over time, he says, that self-censorship can become normalised, even without explicit instructions.

Still, cartoonists have found ways to support one another.

When Acharya's Instagram account was first restricted, Taneja drew a stick-figure cartoon in solidarity. "Seeing people on the front lines creating communities, protesting, running campaigns, tirelessly fighting for their own rights and the rights of others is what keeps me going," she says.

Adhwaryu believes satire will keep adapting. He compares cartoons and humour to a "shape-shifting virus".

"It keeps mutating in response to its environment," he says. "It will find its way."