Fake Court Orders Used to Take Down Websites in India
Key Takeaways
India's telecom department ordered dozens of websites to be blocked based on court orders that turned out to be fake.
Two High Courts confirmed the orders weren't genuine, and one filed a police complaint.
Separately, someone posing as the Delhi Police asked X to block accounts belonging to two digital rights groups. X didn't comply.
A takedown system that trusts paperwork without checking it is easy to turn into a censorship tool.
In India, websites have been taken down on the strength of court orders that no court ever issued. That's the finding of a Reuters investigation published on November 11th, 2026. A second case shows someone tried the same trick on digital rights groups.
Fake Orders, Real Blocks
India's Department of Telecommunications issued website-blocking directions on July 21st and September 2nd. Both came with emailed copies of court orders, supposedly from the Rajasthan High Court and the Allahabad High Court, directing that dozens of websites be removed.
Reuters found the orders weren't real. When the news agency contacted both courts, the Rajasthan court said its order appeared to be fraudulent. The Allahabad High Court looked into it, confirmed its order was fake, and filed a police complaint on November 6th. The emails came from people who claimed to be lawyers.
Digital Rights Groups Targeted
A separate case came up in the Delhi High Court on November 6th. X told the court that notices it had received in the name of the Delhi Police were forged. The notices asked X to block accounts belonging to the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in), two groups that defend online rights in India. They pointed to unnamed court orders and demanded the removal of posts and entire profiles.
X didn't block the accounts. The Delhi Police confirmed it hadn't sent the notices, and its Crime Branch has opened an investigation to find out who did.
A System Built on Trust in Paperwork
Takedown systems run on trust. When an order looks official, platforms and government agencies tend to act first and ask questions later. These cases show what happens when nobody checks: a forged document can do a judge's job.
The people hurt most are often the ones who never see the order. A website owner whose site was blocked may never learn why, or that the order behind it was fake. And groups like IFF and SFLC.in spend their days pushing back on censorship. This time, someone tried to turn the takedown system against them.
India already restricts the internet often, from blocking orders to internet shutdowns in India. Every blocking order should come with real verification, notice to the people affected, and a public record. Without those, anyone with a convincing letterhead gets to decide what people in India can see.
Be part of the resistance, quietly.
Gintarė is a cybersecurity writer at Mysterium VPN, where she explores online privacy, VPN technology, and the latest digital threats in editorial pieces. With hands-on experience researching and writing about data protection and digital freedom, Gintarė makes complex security topics accessible and actionable.
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