Govt slashes online content takedown time to two hours for sensitive matters

The government has slashed the online content takedown time for sensitive matters to 2 hours from the earlier 24 hours given to social media platforms, an official statement said on Thursday.

According to the statement, amendments were made on February 10, 2026, in the IT Rules 2021 to strengthen the regulatory framework to address harms arising from synthetically generated information (SGI), including deepfakes and AI-generated content.

"Strengthening of timelines for compliance, including reduced timelines for removal of unlawful information upon actual knowledge upon valid reasoned intimation from the Appropriate Government or court orders (timeline reduced from 36 hours to 3 hours) and for grievance redressal (including special categories such as nudity/impersonation etc) (timeline reduced from 72 hours to 36 hours and 24 hours to 2 hours for sensitive matters, respectively)," the statement said.


IT Rules mandates the significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs), platforms with over 50 lakh user base in India, to take reasonable efforts to deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms, to proactively identify information that depicts any act or simulation in any form depicting rape, child sexual abuse or conduct or any information which is similar in content to information that has previously been removed.

"In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 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," the statement said.