India proposes tougher social media rules

International

FROM deepfakes to viral misinformation, India is proposing tougher digital rules that would extend oversight beyond news organisations to include social media users posting about current affairs.

The country is considering a significant expansion of its online content regulations, with draft amendments that would bring a wider range of digital voices under formal oversight, including influencers, podcasters, and ordinary users sharing news-related content on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and X.

The proposals, put forward by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), seek to extend parts of India’s IT rules—currently applied mainly to registered digital news publishers—to individuals who are not formal publishers but who share or comment on news and current affairs online, a report by BBC said.

Under the plan, such users could be required to follow a “code of ethics” already used to regulate licensed news organisations.

Officials also propose that social media platforms must comply with government orders and guidelines to retain “safe harbour” protection, which shields them from legal liability for user-generated content.

The government says the changes are intended to strengthen existing safeguards and address growing concerns over misinformation, hate speech, and

AI-generated deepfakes.

Public consultation on the proposal remains open until 14 April. However, the proposals have triggered concern among digital rights advocates and independent creators, who argue that the framework could significantly expand state influence over online speech and increase pressure on platforms to remove content more quickly and broadly, including political commentary, satire, and independent reporting.

The debate comes amid ongoing enforcement actions under existing laws.

Last month, X blocked around a dozen accounts following government orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, many of which were known for satirical posts about government policies.

One affected user, Kumar Nayan, who runs the account @Nehr_who? with about 242,000 followers, said he was not given prior notice or explanation.

He was quoted in a BBC article saying “No reasonable person will say that these posts threaten the nation’s security or disturb communal harmony. They are just funny posts, so why does the government want them taken down?”

He added that a court order later restored his account, though 10 posts remain blocked pending review, and that the legal challenge exposed his identity publicly, raising safety concerns that forced him to relocate.

The broader regulatory landscape has also shifted in recent years. Since 2021, digital news publishers have come under formal oversight, while a 2025 amendment strengthened the government’s Sahyog portal, a centralized system allowing multiple agencies to issue takedown requests with limited transparency.

Early 2026 changes reduced the compliance window for platforms responding to blocking orders from 36 hours to just three, significantly limiting time for review.

Digital rights activist Nikhil Pahwa, writing with Apar Gupta, has argued that platforms tend to comply quickly due to market access concerns, while users often receive little notice or explanation when content is restricted, limiting accountability.

Defending the proposal, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said a unified framework is needed because news and current affairs content is now widely shared by ordinary users as well as publishers, and insisted the rules remain consistent with legal and constitutional standards.

Critics, however, say the combined effect of expanding rules and faster takedown mechanisms risks encouraging self-censorship among creators and ordinary users posting political content online.(MyTVCebu)