Congress alleged that Instagram first blocked Rahul Gandhi and Vijay’s viral oath-taking ceremony video, and later blocked Gandhi’s Instagram story in which he flagged the issue.
The Congress alleged that Instagram has “blocked” a reel and photo post shared by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi featuring him alongside Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay, claiming it violates rules framed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The Centre, however, denied the allegation and attributed the issue to a technical error on the platform’s end.
Gandhi was in Chennai on Sunday to attend Vijay’s oath-taking ceremony as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as Congress backed TVK to form government in Tamil Nadu. Following the event, the Congress leader shared several photographs and a reel capturing moments from the ceremony across social media platforms.
Congress leader and Gandhi’s aide Srivatsa claimed in a post on X that Instagram had “blocked” Gandhi’s reel and photo post featuring him and Vijay from the swearing-in ceremony.
According to Srivatsa, the reel had garnered 12 million views within an hour, while the photo post had reportedly reached 46 million users before access to the content was allegedly restricted.
“Meta cites no reason as to why his account has become inaccessible. The “glitch” is because of MEITY rules! Rahul Gandhi’s social media accounts have been suppressed for a long time. His X reach, YouTube views, Insta followers have all been suppressed,” Srivatsa alleged.
AICC national secretary in charge of communication and publicity Ruchira Chaturvedi also alleged that Meta first blocked Rahul Gandhi and Vijay’s viral video from the oath-taking ceremony and later blocked an Instagram story posted by the Congress leader in which he raised the issue of the video being blocked.
This video from Tamil Nadu CM @TVKVijayHQ ‘s oath ceremony today has been blocked by @Meta on both LoP @RahulGandhi and Congress Party’s accounts.
What’s wrong with this video @Meta? Why has this been blocked? pic.twitter.com/4x0R4XxHut
— Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) May 10, 2026
However, the government denied any intervention in the matter. Responding to the allegations, sources in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said claims linking the ministry to the action were incorrect.
