**Executive Summary**
This document outlines the Indian government's measures to enforce accountability and curb obscenity, misinformation, and cyber offenses on social media and OTT platforms. It references the IT Act, IT Rules 2021, and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, as legal frameworks. Major social media platforms with over 50 lakh users are required to appoint local officers and publish compliance reports. The document was last updated on December 17, 2023.
**Key Points / Main Content**
* **Legal Frameworks:**
* The IT Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, 2021, create a stringent framework to deal with unlawful and harmful content.
* The IT Act imposes obligations on intermediaries, provides punishment for cyber offences, and empowers police to investigate offenses.
* The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, strengthens the legal framework to address cyber-enabled crimes.
* **IT Rules, 2021 - Key Provisions:**
* **Restricted Information:** Restricts hosting, storing, or publishing obscene, harmful, misleading, or threatening content.
* **User Awareness:** Intermediaries must inform users about consequences of sharing unlawful content.
* **Content Removal:** Intermediaries must remove unlawful content expeditiously upon court orders, government intimation, or user grievances.
* **Grievance Redressal:**
* Intermediaries must appoint Grievance Officers.
* Complaints must be resolved within 72 hours, with stricter timelines for content violating privacy.
* **Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs):** Users can appeal to GACs if their complaints are not addressed.
* **Assistance to Government:** Intermediaries must provide information to government agencies for identity verification and cyber security incident investigation.
* **Additional Obligations for Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs):**
* Help law enforcement trace originators of serious content.
* Use automated tools to detect unlawful content.
* Publish compliance reports, appoint local officers, and share physical addresses in India.
* Offer voluntary user verification and fair hearing.
* **Consequences of Non-Compliance:**
* Intermediaries failing to observe obligations lose exemption from third-party information liability under the IT Act.
* They are liable for consequential action or prosecution.
* **OTT Platform Regulations:**
* Part-III of the IT Rules, 2021, provides a Code of Ethics for digital news and OTT publishers.
* OTT platforms cannot transmit content prohibited by law.
* The government has disabled public access to 43 OTT platforms displaying obscene content.
**Impact Analysis**
**Major Social Media Platforms (SSMIs) with over 50 Lakh Users**
* **Impact:** Required to enhance due diligence, appoint officers, publish reports, and implement mechanisms for content moderation and user grievance redressal.
* **Action Required:** Appoint local officers, publish compliance reports, and share physical addresses in India. Implement automated tools to detect unlawful content. Provide assistance to law enforcement for tracing originators.
**Internet Users**
* **Impact:** Increased accountability from online platforms.
* **Action Required:** Be aware of terms of service and consequences for posting unlawful content. Utilize grievance mechanisms to report issues.
**Government and Law Enforcement**
* **Impact:** Enhanced powers and access to information for preventing, detecting, and prosecuting cyber offenses.
* **Action Required:** Implement processes for issuing directives and requests to intermediaries.
**OTT Platforms**
* **Impact:** Obligations to comply with a Code of Ethics and restrictions on transmitting prohibited content.
* **Action Required:** Ensure that the platform does not transmit content prohibited by law.
Key Entities Referenced
Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021: Rules that impose due-diligence obligations on intermediaries and provide a framework to deal with unlawful and harmful content in the digital space.
Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000: The Act provides punishment for various cyber offences and empowers Police to investigate offences.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023: Strengthens the legal framework to address offences involving online harm, obscenity, misinformation and other cyber-enabled crimes.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting: The ministry responsible for the policies aimed at ensuring an Open, Safe and Trusted and Accountable Internet.
Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs): Ensure accountability and transparency of content moderation decisions by intermediaries.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
From Social Media to OTT Platforms:
Government Enforces Strict Accountability to
Curb Obscenity, Misinformation and Cyber
Offences Online
Safe, Trusted and Accountable Internet, Especially for
Women and Children
IT Act, IT Rules 2021 and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Empower
Authorities to Tackle Obscene, Harmful and Unlawful Online
Content
Major Social Media Platforms with over 50 Lakh Users
Required to Appoint Local Officers and Publish Compliance
Reports
प्रव तथ: 17 DEC 2025 2:23PM by PIB Delhi
The policies of the Government are aimed at ensuring an Open, Safe and Trusted and Accountable Internet
for its users, including women and children.
The Government is committed to ensure that the Internet in India is free from any form of unlawful
content or information, particularly vulgar and obscene content.
Legal frameworks to counter unlawful content on digital platforms
Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000
The IT Act and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)
Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021), together, have put in place a stringent framework to deal with unlawful and
harmful content in the digital space.
It imposes clear obligations on intermediaries to ensure accountability.
The IT Act provides punishment for various cyber offences such as privacy violations (section 66E),
publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit content (sections 67, 67A, 67B).
It also empowers Police to investigate offences (section 78), enter public place and search and arrest
suspected person (section 80).
IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021The IT Rules, 2021 cast due-diligence obligations on intermediaries, including social media
intermediaries, and require them to implement these obligations effectively so as to prevent the hosting or
transmission of unlawful content.
Key provisions under IT Rules, 2021:
Provision Details
Restricted information Restricts hosting, storing, transmitting, displaying or publishing
information/content that, among other things, is:
under Rule 3(1)(b)
obscene, pornographic, invasive of another’s privacy, insulting or harassing
on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, or promoting
hate or violence;
harmful to child;
deceives or misleads, including through deepfakes;
impersonates others, including via Artificial Intelligence;
threatens national security or public order;
violates any applicable law.
User Awareness Intermediaries must clearly inform users through terms of service and user
agreements about the consequences of sharing unlawful content, including
Obligations
content removal, account suspension, or termination.
Accountability in Intermediaries must act expeditiously to remove unlawful content upon
Content Removal court orders, reasoned intimation from Government, or user grievances,
within prescribed timelines.
Intermediaries to appoint Grievance Officers
Grievance Redressal
Mandates to resolve complaints through removal of unlawful content within
72 hours.
Content violating privacy, impersonating individuals, or showing nudity
must be removed within 24 hours against any such complaint.
Grievance Appellate Users can appeal online at www.gac.gov.in if their complaints are not
Committees (GACs) addressed by the intermediaries’ Grievance Officers. GACs ensure
Mechanism accountability and transparency of content moderation decisions.
Assistance by Intermediaries must provide information under their control or assistance to
authorised Government agencies for identity verification, or for the
Intermediaries to
prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of offences, including
Government Agencies cyber security incidents.Additional Obligations SSMIs offering messaging services must help law enforcement trace
originators of serious or sensitive content.
of significant social
SSMIs to use automated tools to detect and limit spread of certain unlawful
media intermediaries
content.
(SSMIs) (i.e., social
SSMIs to publish compliance reports, appoint local officers, and share
media intermediaries physical address based in India for compliances and law enforcement
coordination.
having 50 lakhs or
above registered user SSMIs to offer voluntary user verification, internal appeals, and fair hearing
base in before taking suo-moto action.
India)
In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021,
they lose their exemption from third party information provided under section 79 of the IT Act.
They are liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023
The BNS, 2023 strengthens the legal framework to address offences involving online harm, obscenity,
misinformation and other cyber-enabled crimes, including those committed through social media
platforms.
Provides punishment for offences like obscene acts (Section 296), sale of obscene material
including display of any such content in electronic form (Section 294)
Similarly, to address the negative effects of harmful content on OTT platforms, Government has notified
the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media, Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on
25.02.2021 under IT Act, 2000.
Part-III of the rules provides for a Code of Ethics for digital news publishers and publishers of
online curated content (OTT platforms).
OTT platforms are under obligation not to transmit any content which is prohibited by law for the
time being in force.
The Government has so far disabled public access in India for 43 OTT platforms for displaying
obscene content.
The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. L. Murugan,
provided this information in the Lok Sabha today in response to a question raised by Shri Nishikant
Dubey.
******
Mahesh Kumar/ Vivek Vishwash
(रलीज़ आईडी: 2205140) आगंतुक पटल : 1612
इस वज्ञ को इन भाषाओ ंम पढ़: Urdu , Marathi , ही , Bengali , Bengali-TR , Gujarati , Tamil , Telugu , Kannada , Malayalam