Content Moderation Transparency: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025 to amend the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules – IT Rules, 2021.
These amendments strengthen the framework of due diligence obligations of intermediaries under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Ministry added that specifically, the amendments to Rule 3(1)(d) provide additional safeguards to ensure that removal of unlawful content by intermediaries is carried out in a transparent, proportionate and accountable manner.
Under this Rule, intermediaries are required to remove unlawful information upon receiving actual knowledge either through a court order or notification from the Appropriate Government. According to the Ministry, the amended Rules will come into effect from 1st of next month.
The Ministry reviewed the rules and highlighted the need for additional safeguards to ensure senior-level accountability, precise specification of unlawful content, and periodic review of government directions at higher level. It added that any intimation to intermediaries for removal of unlawful information can now only be issued by a senior officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary, or equivalent.
It said, in case of police authorities, only an officer not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), specially authorised, can issue such intimation. It added that the intimation regarding the removal of unlawful content must clearly specify the legal basis and statutory provision. The amendments strike a balance between the constitutional rights of citizens and the legitimate regulatory powers of the State, ensuring that enforcement actions are transparent and do not lead to arbitrary restrictions. The IT Rules, 2021 were originally notified in 2021 and subsequently amended in 2022 and 2023. They prescribe due diligence obligations on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, with the objective of ensuring online safety, security and accountability.
The Ministry has also invited feedback and comments of stakeholders on the Draft amendments to Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in relation to synthetically generated information commonly known as deepfakes.The draft aims to strengthen due diligence obligations for intermediaries, particularly social media intermediaries as well as for platforms that enable the creation or modification of synthetically generated content. The proposed amendment introduces labelling and metadata embedding requirements for such information to ensure users can distinguish synthetic from authentic content.
