Quick Reply: If a social media platform ignores or rejects your complaint, you can appeal free to the Grievance Appellate Committee at gac.gov.in within 30 days. Here is how.
The Grievance Appellate Committee, or GAC, is a free government appeal body at gac.gov.in. If a platform like Facebook, Instagram, X or YouTube rejects your complaint or stays silent, you can appeal the decision online. The GAC reviews how the platform handled your grievance and can direct it to act.
The GAC is your second stop, not your first. You appeal to it only after the platform's own Grievance Officer has decided your case or failed to reply. It runs entirely online under the Information Technology Rules, 2021, and costs nothing to use.
Short on time? Jump to the escalation ladder below to see exactly where your case stands and what step comes next.
Social media complaints in India move up a fixed set of rungs. Find the rung you are on, then climb to the next one.
Do not skip Step 1. The GAC is an appeal forum. If you have not first complained to the platform's Grievance Officer, you have nothing to appeal yet.
The whole process happens at the official portal. Keep your platform complaint reference and the officer's reply ready before you start.
You file from anywhere on a phone or computer. There is no fee and no need to travel.
The committee has a clear, limited job. Knowing its limits saves you from filing in the wrong place.
What the GAC can do:
What the GAC cannot do:
If your real problem is a scam transaction or extortion, the GAC is the wrong door. Use the cybercrime route instead.
A strong appeal shows the committee the full paper trail. Gather these before you file.
Kashvi Pathak, a small-business owner, found a cloned Instagram page using her photos to message her customers. She reported it in-app and got a ticket number, but the platform took no action. She then emailed the India Grievance Officer with screenshots. After 15 days with no decision, she filed a GAC appeal at gac.gov.in within the 30-day window, attaching her original complaint, the ticket number, and dated screenshots. The committee took up the silence of the Grievance Officer and directed the platform to review the impersonating account.
For a parallel route on fake accounts, see how to report fake social media profiles in India and the fake social media profile takedown guide.
Yes. The GAC is an appeal stage. You must first send a written complaint to the platform's India Grievance Officer. Only after the officer rejects your complaint, or fails to reply, can you appeal to the GAC. Filing at the GAC without that first step leaves nothing to appeal.
You have 30 days. The window runs from the date you received the Grievance Officer's decision. If the officer never replied, the 30 days run from the date a reply was due. File inside this window, because a late appeal can be rejected on timing alone.
No. The GAC is a free, fully online mechanism at gac.gov.in. There is no government fee and no need to hire anyone. If someone offers to file your appeal for a charge, treat it as a warning sign and file it yourself on the official portal.
No. The GAC does not handle financial fraud or cybercrime. For money lost to a scam, extortion, or a fraudulent transaction, call the cybercrime helpline 1930 or report at cybercrime.gov.in. Use the deepfake blackmail recovery guide if you face image-based extortion.
A writ petition in the High Court under Article 226 is an optional last resort. It is a court process, so most people consult a lawyer first. In practice, the GAC resolves the large majority of platform complaints, so the High Court route is rarely needed.
Yes. The platform's duties come from the IT Rules, 2021. You can file an RTI to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, MeitY, asking about compliance and grievance-handling data. Draft one with the AI RTI drafter to frame your questions cleanly.
Last reviewed: 31 August 2026.