On 10 February 2026, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules”), explicitly bringing synthetically generated information (“SGI”), including deepfakes and other AI‑generated content, within the scope of the IT Rules’ due diligence framework.
The amendments introduce significant new obligations: a three‑hour deadline for removal of flagged unlawful content, mandatory labelling and provenance requirements for synthetic material, shortened grievance redressal timelines, and expanded intermediary duties to proactively detect, block, and label synthetic audio‑visual content. As the amendments are effective from 20 February 2026, in-scope platforms face a narrow ten‑day compliance window.
We outline the nature and scope of the amendments and their implications for digital platforms operating in India in further detail below.
Summary of key changes
1. Scope of IT rules expanded to cover synthetic media
- The amendments introduce a statutory definition of SGI, expressly bringing synthetic audio‑visual content within the IT Rules framework. SGI covers audio, visual, or audio‑visual information that is artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified, or altered using a computer resource in a manner that appears real and authentic, portraying individuals or events as indistinguishable from actual persons or real‑world occurrences.
- To avoid sweeping in routine digital practices, the definition of SGI explicitly excludes good‑faith editing or technical corrections (such as formatting, colour adjustment, noise reduction, or compression), the creation of documents, presentations, educational materials, drafts, or templates that do not result in false records, and the use of computer solely to improve accessibility, clarity, translation, or discoverability without altering substantive content.
2. User notification requirements
- Intermediaries must now notify users at least once every three months, through their terms of service, privacy policy, or other appropriate means, that non‑compliance with their platform rules relating to the creation, modification, hosting, or dissemination of unlawful information can result in suspension or termination of access, removal of content, and potential penalties under the IT Act or other laws.
- In addition, platforms offering SGI tools must provide enhanced disclosures, warning users that misuse of synthetic content may attract liability under a wide range of statutes, including those addressing child exploitation, sexual abuse, and other offences.
- Users must also be informed that violations can lead to immediate removal of synthetic content, suspension or termination of accounts, disclosure of identity to victims, and mandatory reporting to authorities.
3. New three‑hour compliance window
- Intermediaries must now act on government or court orders, including takedown orders, within three hours of receipt, compared to the earlier 36‑hour window under the IT Rules.
4. Due diligence for synthetic media
- Intermediaries offering SGI tools must deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools, to proactively prevent users from generating or sharing SGI that violates any law. Prohibited SGI includes child sexual exploitation material, non‑consensual intimate imagery, obscene or sexually explicit content, false documents or electronic records, synthetic depictions of explosives or arms, and deceptive portrayals of individuals or events.
- Permitted SGI must be prominently labelled and embedded with permanent metadata or provenance markers, including unique identifiers linking the content to the intermediary’s computer resource. Platforms are expressly prohibited from enabling the modification, suppression, or removal of these markers.
5. Obligations for Significant Social Media Intermediaries (“SSMIs”)
- A significant social media intermediary (SSMI) is defined as a platform with more than 50 lakh (5 million) registered users in India, as notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2021.
- SSMIs must require users to declare whether content is SGI, deploy technical measures to verify the accuracy of such declarations, and ensure that confirmed SGI is clearly labelled with an appropriate notice.
- If an SSMI knowingly permits, promotes, or fails to act against SGI in violation of the rules, it will be deemed to have failed its due diligence obligations. The amendments clarify that SSMIs must take reasonable and proportionate technical measures to verify user declarations and ensure that no synthetic content is published without proper disclosure.
Implications for in-scope platforms
- Compliance obligations: In-scope-platforms must implement detection tools and labelling systems to identify synthetic content.
- Takedown readiness: Escalation protocols should be reviewed to ensure responsiveness within the new three‑hour deadline.
- Content monitoring: In-scope platforms should strengthen monitoring capabilities, including automated systems, to flag and label synthetic material at scale.
- Policy alignment: User policies and community guidelines should be updated to reflect definitions of unlawful and synthetic content.
Conclusion
The amendments to the IT Rules mark a notable shift in India’s digital regulatory framework, placing synthetic media at the centre of intermediary compliance. With accelerated timelines, mandatory labelling, and heightened due diligence obligations, platforms within scope of these new obligations must act swiftly to update their compliance posture.
Organisations operating in India should carefully assess whether they fall within scope of the amended IT Rules and take prompt steps to ensure compliance ahead of the 20 February 2026 effective date.
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