New Delhi: Senior journalist and founding editor of The Wire, M K Venu, has strongly condemned the government's decision to restrict access to the Mathrubhumi’s viral Instagram news clip showing Delhi Police action against student protesters, characterising the move as part of a broader, draconian censorship campaign.

Calling attention to data collated by digital rights watchdogs and reported by The Indian Express, Venu highlighted, “The government issued nearly 1,95,000 blocking orders to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube over five months from March to July which broadly coincided with the Gen Z youth protest across India.”
 

“More than half of these blocking orders were on Instagram. It is clear that the Modi government is becoming hugely unpopular with the youth of the country and has lost the narrative on social media , especially on Instagram, completely,” he said.
”The experience of Mathrabhumi's viral clip being blocked by the government is another example of how the government continues to resort to such draconian censorship measures to cover up its misdeeds. Such censorship measures are totally undemocratic and violate the fundamental guarantee of free speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution.
With over half of those takedown orders specifically targeting Instagram,” he added.