India's State Threatens OSINT Platforms to Shield Its Digital Surveillance Monopoly

India’s law enforcement regime is escalating threats against OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) platforms that leverage darknet sources. Their justification: these platforms are trading in sensitive personal data. What they won’t admit is that their real concern is a loss of information control. These platforms are uncovering breaches and leaks the state either enabled, ignored, or failed to secure. Instead of accountability, they’re resorting to coercion.

The agencies cite violations of the Information Technology Act (2000), the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023), and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023)—all state-authored legal scaffolds that criminalize access to information outside government control. What’s being called “unauthorized” collection is often nothing more than indexing what's already publicly exposed due to institutional incompetence or corruption. If this data were accessed by state intelligence or corporate contractors, it would be labeled “strategic intelligence.” But in the hands of independent analysts, it’s suddenly a crime.

OSINT platforms have been pivotal in exposing everything from government credential leaks to criminal networks operating inside Indian jurisdictions. Now that this information is being weaponized against the bureaucratic class itself, the state is predictably labeling the platforms "illegal." Sections like 66C and 66D of the IT Act—originally meant to prosecute genuine fraud—are being repurposed to silence platforms that embarrass the regime. The DPDP Act, billed as a privacy measure, is being twisted into a tool of selective enforcement.

A so-called “senior cyber official” claims that website takedowns, arrests, and prosecutions are imminent. That statement alone reveals the priority: not citizen data safety, but absolute state monopoly over digital narratives. Meanwhile, the same state contracts private firms to do OSINT work on protestors, journalists, and political dissidents. The difference? Those platforms serve state objectives. Independent OSINT platforms don’t.

Theoretical Perspective:
It’s possible this crackdown also serves a geopolitical motive. OSINT platforms often expose cross-border cyber operations involving state-sponsored actors. That disrupts diplomatic theater. The Indian state may be attempting to stifle leaks that show its own vulnerabilities or strategic failures—particularly in cyber warfare and surveillance infrastructure.

If the state were truly concerned with data privacy, it would first audit Aadhaar breaches, banking leaks, and telecom surveillance programs. Instead, it is criminalizing the people documenting those breaches. What we’re witnessing isn’t justice. It’s a digital enclosure movement—an authoritarian grab for informational turf that was never theirs to own.

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