Five Months after Its Website Was Blocked, Polymarket’s Official Social Media Profile Is Now Withheld in India

File photo: New Delhi skyline viewed from the railway station, January 2008. Geographic context only; not a government blocking operation or Polymarket infrastructure. Photo: CC-by-sa PlaneMad/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. Display cropped to fit. Image source.

Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market, has lost another channel for reaching the public in India. Around midday on October 22, Beijing time, users in India began finding that Polymarket’s official social media profile, with approximately 2.03 million followers, was no longer viewable. A notice said the profile had been “withheld in India (IN) in response to a legal demand.” That evening, this publication verified through the platform’s interface that the profile’s withheld-country field was indeed “IN,” and that India was the only country listed.

Who Made the Demand Has Not Been Disclosed

The platform’s notice referred only to a “legal demand,” without identifying who had made it or why. At the time of publication, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued no announcement, and Polymarket had made no public response. Under India’s 2009 internet-blocking procedure rules, blocking directions issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and the related deliberations must remain confidential. Outsiders can therefore usually see only the outcome: that something has been “withheld.” This publication could not verify whether this restriction resulted from a Section 69A direction by MeitY or what its basis was.

Indian internet users have offered two explanations for the reason. One sees it as an extension of the prediction-market ban: Polymarket was already a prohibited platform in India, and withholding its official profile cuts off a promotional channel. The other links it to Polymarket’s frequent recent posts about Indian politics. This publication reviewed the profile’s posts since the start of October and found several concerning Indian politics, including a market launched on October 10 on whether Modi would leave office before June 30, 2027; a market launched on October 11 on whether Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would leave office before December 31; and continuing coverage of the detention of leaders of the “Cockroach” protest movement and their release on October 22. Neither explanation has received official confirmation.

Notably, this restriction is narrowly scoped. This publication also checked other Polymarket profiles and its founder’s profile: Polymarket Intel (approximately 830,000 followers), Polymarket Sports (approximately 180,000), Polymarket Money (approximately 210,000), the customer-support profile Polymarket Help, and CEO Shayne Coplan’s personal profile. None displayed any withheld countries at the time of publication. By comparison, country-specific restrictions on gambling-related profiles are not unusual on the platform: checks made by this publication in the same batch showed that 1xBet’s official English-language profile was withheld in Indonesia, Russia and Türkiye, while Stake.com’s official profile was withheld in Türkiye.

From a Prohibitory Law to Website Blocking and Profile Withholding

India’s classification of prediction markets has long been clear. On August 22, 2025, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (Act No. 32 of 2025), received presidential assent, comprehensively prohibiting “online money games” involving monetary stakes, their advertising and related payments. On April 22, 2026, MeitY issued notification S.O. 1994(E), setting May 1 as the Act’s commencement date. The accompanying Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 303(E)), came into force on May 1, 2026, establishing the Online Gaming Authority of India.

Polymarket was specifically named. An advisory sent by MeitY’s Cyber Laws Division to all VPN service providers and intermediaries (reference 2(6)/2024-CL&DG-Part(1), with a handwritten date of April 25, 2026) said that Polymarket and a “few similar websites” had already been blocked in India under Section 69A, but that users were circumventing the restrictions through VPNs and converting Indian rupees into stablecoins such as USDC to trade. Citing the Online Gaming Act, the advisory said that any platform directly or indirectly facilitating access or funding for prohibited online money games, including prediction markets and including through circumvention, violated that Act and the Information Technology Act. It required VPN providers not to host or allow access to “Polymarket and other similar unlawful platforms,” warning that they could otherwise lose their intermediary liability protection.

It should be noted that the text layer of the electronic version of this advisory reads the date as “9.04.2026,” but the handwritten day on the scan is “25.” ThePrint and other outlets also reported April 25, so the 25th should be taken as the date.

The website-level block took practical effect only subsequently. CoinDesk reported on May 22 that polymarket.com was then inaccessible in India. On May 21, ThePrint quoted an unnamed MeitY official as saying: “We have issued a blocking order to Polymarket and are issuing one to Kalshi.” Kalshi, which is regulated by the US CFTC, subsequently withdrew of its own accord: its June 22 exchange notice amended its member agreement to add India to its “restricted jurisdictions,” prohibiting users located in India from trading event contracts but not from registering or accessing non-trading functions. Bloomberg and The Economic Times reported that the member agreement was dated June 17, which differs from the June 22 date shown on Kalshi’s notice.

What This Means

From website blocking and the VPN advisory to the latest withholding of the official profile, India’s treatment of overseas prediction markets has continued along the Information Technology Act’s blocking route, rather than the fine or prosecution procedures under the Online Gaming Act. The latter fall to the newly established Online Gaming Authority of India, and there is currently no public record of enforcement against Polymarket under those procedures. For users in India still trading through VPNs and stablecoins, withholding the profile does not itself change the legal risks. It looks more like a continued tightening at the information level, reducing prediction markets’ exposure to Indian users. Whether the restriction will expand to Polymarket’s other profiles remains to be seen.

Sources

• Polymarket’s official profile (withheld status verified through the platform’s interface on October 22, 2026): https://x.com/Polymarket
• MeitY advisory to VPN service providers and intermediaries (April 25, 2026): https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/c99a3ded4d682879951d238b7a671a39.pdf
• MeitY commencement notification S.O. 1994(E) (April 22, 2026): https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/089ca9904b13f019b41a391584ab10ea.pdf
• Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 303(E), Gazette of India: https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2026/271974.pdf
• PIB press release: Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 (April 22, 2026): https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2254606&lang=2&reg=3
• Kalshi exchange notice (June 22, 2026): https://kalshi-public-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/regulatory/notices/Kalshi%20Exchange%20Notice%20%28Updated%20Member%20Agreement%29%20%2822%20June%202026%29.pdf
• ThePrint (May 21, 2026): https://theprint.in/india/governance/polymarket-kalshi-india-prediction-markets/2937547/
• CoinDesk (May 22, 2026): https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/22/india-cracks-down-on-prediction-markets-polymarket-goes-dark-kalshi-could-be-next
• The Economic Times (June 23, 2026): https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kalshi-bars-india-users-after-govt-bans-prediction-markets/articleshow/131929930.cms