NEW DELHI: Starting November 1, only senior officials of the rank of joint secretaries or directors general of police can issue orders to social media platforms to remove unlawful content. Besides, every such takedown order will be subject to a monthly review by a secretary-level officer to ensure the actions remain lawful, necessary, and proportionate.
These provisions are part of the amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, notified on Wednesday. Under the amended rules, all takedown requests must include clear legal basis, specific statutory provisions, and details such as URLs or identifiers of the content.
The new provisions, introduced through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025, aim to make the removal process more transparent, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said.
First notified in February 2021 and amended in 2022 and 2023, the IT rules lay down obligations for intermediaries to ensure online safety and accountability. Under Rule 3(1)(d), they must remove unlawful information upon receiving a court order or a government notification.
The ministry has also proposed new rules to regulate deepfakes and AI-generated content. The draft rules propose a new clause defining synthetically generated information as any content artificially created or modified in a manner that appears authentic. Such content could be treated as unlawful and taken down.
Labels for deepfakes, AI-generated content
To curb deepfakes, the IT ministry has proposed embedded markers and labelling to help social media users identify AI-generated content.