Govt cautions social media platforms over unlawful and obscene content

New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued an advisory to digital intermediaries, including social media platforms, flagging persistent gaps in the handling of obscene and unlawful content and cautioning that failure to comply with statutory obligations could have legal consequences, according to news reports.

In the advisory dated January 29, the ministry said it has repeatedly encountered concerns around the circulation of content that may violate laws relating to decency, obscenity and child protection. These concerns, MeitY noted, have emerged through public discussions, stakeholder representations, parliamentary deliberations and court proceedings, with some cases already referred to law enforcement agencies.

MeitY reiterated that intermediaries must adhere strictly to due diligence requirements under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, along with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, in order to retain protection from liability for third-party content.

The ministry said platforms are expected to take reasonable steps to prevent users from hosting or sharing content that is obscene, sexually explicit, paedophilic, harmful to children or otherwise unlawful. It further stressed that intermediaries must act promptly to remove or disable access to such content once they receive actual knowledge through court orders or government directions, within the timelines prescribed under the rules.

Failure to meet these obligations, the advisory warned, could result in intermediaries losing their safe harbour protections and facing action under the Information Technology Act as well as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

MeitY has asked intermediaries to immediately review their internal compliance frameworks and content moderation mechanisms, cautioning that continued lapses could lead to prosecution of platforms, their officials and, in certain cases, users under applicable criminal laws.