Fact Check: No, PM Modi has not decided to shut down Instagram in India
A reel doing the rounds on Instagram this week claims Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to shut down Instagram in India. It is the latest version of a rumour that has resurfaced several times since July, and it is false. Here is how we checked it.
The claim
The reel, posted by an account called "SN Bihar Dastak", says the Prime Minister has taken a decision to close Instagram in the country, according to LatestLY, which examined the clip on 11 September. Earlier versions of the same rumour, circulating from late July, gave a specific date, saying the app would be banned from the night of 25 August, and a related strand claimed accounts would be locked between midnight and 6 am.
Step 1: Is there any official order?
A ban on a platform used by hundreds of millions of Indians would require an order under the Information Technology Act and would be announced by the Ministry of Electronics and IT. We found no such notification, press release or ministerial statement. Nothing on the ministry's or PIB's official channels refers to any restriction on Instagram.
Step 2: What does the government's own fact-checker say?
The Press Information Bureau's Fact Check Unit addressed the claim directly. On 28 July, Akashvani News reported the unit calling the "25 August ban" claim fake, stating that "no such announcement has been made by the government" and that no notification, order or policy decision on any such ban had been issued. On 7 September, responding to the new reel, PIB Fact Check again labelled the claim fake in Hindi and repeated that the Government of India has made no such announcement, LatestLY reported. It urged users not to believe misleading claims and to verify information with official sources before sharing.
Step 3: Did the ban happen?
The strongest evidence is the calendar. The rumour's own deadline of 25 August has passed, and Instagram continues to function normally in India. No user-facing notice from Meta, no court order and no telecom-level block has been reported by any credible outlet.
Why the rumour keeps coming back
"App ban" hoaxes are a durable genre in India because the government has in fact blocked apps before, most notably the 2020 action against TikTok and other Chinese-origin apps. That precedent gives each new claim a veneer of plausibility. Reels that announce a ban also perform well because they provoke shares, comments and panic, which is exactly what the accounts posting them want.
What to check next time: look for a named ministry, a gazette notification or a PIB release. A reel with dramatic music and no document is a red flag.
Verdict: False. There is no government decision, order or announcement to ban or shut down Instagram in India. PIB's Fact Check Unit has twice labelled the claim fake, and the app is operating normally.