India Regulator Warns Against Calling Homeopaths 'Quacks' as Instagram Blocks Critic

This episode shows how a regulator's defamation warning combined with February's three-hour takedown rule can quickly mute scientific criticism on social platforms.

Overview

The Board of Ethics and Registration for Homoeopathy (BERH) issued a circular on Monday warning that calling registered homoeopaths “quacks” may be defamatory and could invite legal action.
Hours after the circular, hepatologist Cyriac Abby Philips (TheLiverDoc) posted criticism of homeopathy on Instagram and reported the post was restricted in India with a notice citing legal requirements.
Under amendments notified in February 2026, India’s Information Technology rules require platforms to remove or restrict content within three hours of receiving a government order, a process critics say enabled the rapid block.
The BERH circular tells stakeholders to avoid defamatory or misleading language but does not define who decides defamation or outline enforcement, and neither Meta nor the government has publicly explained this specific takedown.
Homeopathy remains a recognised system under the Ministry of AYUSH with millions of users, and the dispute could chill public scientific critique, shape platform compliance, and prompt scrutiny of how reputation rules affect health information online.