Centre Tightens IT Rules, Slashes Removal Timelines For Sensitive Content From 24 Hours To 2 Hours

The Centre has sharply cut the time given to social media platforms to act on unlawful and sensitive online content, as part of a fresh push to rein in deepfakes and other AI-generated material circulating on the internet.

Under amendments made to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified on February 10, 2026, platforms must now remove sensitive content such as nudity and impersonation within two hours of a complaint, down from the earlier window of 24 hours.

The government said the changes are meant to strengthen the regulatory framework around synthetically generated information (SGI), a category that includes deepfakes, fake audio, fabricated video and AI-generated text that can be used to mislead, defraud or defame people online. Officials said the amendments were necessary because existing timelines had failed to keep pace with how quickly manipulated content could spread and cause harm once it went viral on a platform.

The amendments do not stop at grievance timelines. The deadline for taking down unlawful content after receiving a valid, reasoned order from a court or the appropriate government has been slashed from 36 hours to just three hours. The broader grievance redressal timeline, within which platforms must respond to user complaints, has also been tightened, cut from 72 hours to 36 hours.

Significant social media intermediaries, or platforms with more than 50 lakh users in India, now carry an added responsibility. They are required to deploy "reasonable and appropriate technical measures", including automated tools, to proactively identify content depicting rape or child sexual abuse, as well as material that closely resembles content already taken down once.

The rules go further on the question of AI-generated content itself. Platforms will now have to clearly label permissible synthetic content and ensure it carries traceable metadata, so that users can tell when they are looking at something that was generated or altered using AI. The idea, officials said, is to make "synthetically generated material" identifiable at a glance, instead of leaving ordinary users to guess whether what they are watching or reading is real, AI-generated, or altered in some way.

Platforms have also been told to take active measures against unlawful AI-generated content, a category that spans deepfakes, child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate images, and AI-based impersonation of real people. Beyond removal, intermediaries must inform users about the "legal consequences" of creating or circulating such unlawful synthetic content, effectively building a deterrent into the platform experience itself.

The consequences of non-compliance remain steep. The government's statement made clear that intermediaries who fail to meet these obligations under the IT Rules risk losing the safe harbour protection available to them under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, the provision that shields platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. Losing that protection could expose platforms to prosecution under applicable laws, the statement added.

Officials framed the amendments as part of a larger effort to build an "open, safe, trusted and accountable cyberspace" in the country, even as India moves to encourage the "responsible development, deployment and adoption of AI". With deepfakes increasingly being used for everything from financial fraud to political misinformation to non-consensual imagery, the tightened rules signal that the government intends to hold platforms to a far shorter leash when harmful content goes online.

Inputs from News18