Newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK chief C. Joseph Vijay with Congress MP and LoP Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi during the first swearing-in ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on May 10, 2026. | Photo credit: PTI
The Congress on Sunday (May 10, 2026) claimed that Instagram had “blocked” a reel and post featuring a photo of Rahul Gandhi with him and actor-politician Vijay due to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) rules, even as government sources denied the allegation.
Sources at MeitY clarified that this had nothing to do with the event and was because the platform’s internal system mistakenly flagged the post for blocking.
Mr Gandhi was in Chennai on Sunday (May 10, 2026) to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Vijay as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and later shared several pictures with the actor-politician on social media.
In a post on X, Congress leader and Mr Gandhi’s adviser Srivats claimed that Instagram had “blocked Gandhi’s reel and pictures of him and Thalapathy Vijay at today’s swearing-in ceremony”.
The viral reel garnered 12 million views in less than an hour, while the viral image post has already reached 46 million people, Mr. Srivatsa.
Instagram has blocked Rahul Gandhi’s LOP reel and pictures of him and Thalapathy Vijay at today’s swearing-in ceremony.
The viral reel racked up 12 million views in less than an hour, and the viral image post has already reached 46 million people.
Meta quotes no…
— Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) May 10, 2026
“Meta does not give any reason why his account became unavailable. The ‘glitch’ is due to MEITA rules! Rahul Gandhi’s social media accounts have been suppressed for a long time. His X reach, YouTube views and Insta followers have been suppressed,” he claimed.
This is how the voice of the Indian opposition leader is limited, Mr. Srivatsa added.
Responding to the claims, sources in MeitY said that some social media operators had wrongly claimed that some of the opposition leader’s posts had been restricted by the ministry.
“It is clarified that MeitY had nothing to do with this action. It was due to the fact that the platform’s own internal system mistakenly flagged the post for blocking, which has now been restored,” said a ministry source.
Published – 10 May 2026 23:36 IST
