Govt Amends IT Rules, with focus on AI content

Syllabus: GS2/Governance

Context

• The Government has introduced the amended Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2026.

About

• The amendments are set to come into effect on February 20, 2026, and are aimed at countering the rapid spread of deepfakes, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) across digital platforms. 
• Synthetic Media: It has defined “synthetic media” as content that can appear like a real person or real event in a manner that may deceive viewers into believing it is genuine.
• Need: The move comes amid growing concerns over the misuse of deepfakes, impersonation, misinformation and synthetic media for fraud, harassment and other unlawful activities.

Amended Rules

• Content Prohibited: Platforms are required to prevent their services from being used to create or disseminate synthetic content involving child sexual abuse material, obscene or indecent content, impersonation, false electronic records, or material linked to weapons, explosives or other illegal activities.
• Mandatory Label: It has directed social media platforms and other digital intermediaries to ensure that synthetic content is clearly labelled as AI-generated.
  • Platforms are also required to embed persistent metadata or technical provenance markers, such as unique identifiers, to help trace synthetic content back to the originating platform or system. 
  • Intermediaries are prohibited from allowing these labels or metadata to be removed or tampered with.
• Declarations and Accountability: Social media platforms are directed to obtain user declarations at the time of upload, asking whether the content being posted has been synthetically generated or altered using AI.
  • Platforms are expected to verify the accuracy of these declarations. 
• Authorities to Issue Orders: The rules also allow police authorities to designate one or more officers, not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General (DIG), to issue takedown orders.
• Timeline: In certain cases, social media platforms must now act on lawful orders or user complaints within three hours, down from 36 hours earlier.
  • Other response deadlines have also been reduced, with timelines cut from 15 days to seven days and from 24 hours to 12 hours, depending on the nature of the violation.
• Social media platforms will also need to inform users about privacy laws, policies, prohibited content and recourse available to them at least once every three months, instead of once a year from before.
• Penalty: Failure to comply with the new timelines will attract criminal litigation under the existing social media intermediary laws. 

Source: LM