Delhi Stampede: Railway Ministry Asks X to Remove Videos

The harrowing incident of the massive stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on 15th February amidst the rush for Kumbh special trains has not faded from collective memory and there have been intriguing reports about the incident. 

Amidst, the Railway Ministry has directed X (formerly Twitter) to take down 285 social media links containing videos of casualties from the stampede at the New Delhi railway station.

This is considered as the first major enforcement action of the railway ministry since the incident. 

“This is not only against the ethical norms but also against the content policy of x.com itself as sharing of such video may create unwarranted law and order situation,” said the ministry’s notice sent to X.

The notice also said that the contents “may affect the operations of Indian Railways” seeing the ‘huge rush’ these days. The notice set a 36-hour deadline for X to remove posts from multiple accounts, which include prominent news networks. The ministry cites concerns about sensitive or disturbing media depictions of deceased individuals.

Earlier, in December last year, the Railways Ministry empowered its executive director of information and publicity (Railway Board) to issue takedown notices directly to social media platforms under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act.