India’s government has significantly intensified its regulatory framework for digital platforms by mandating social media companies to remove unlawful content within a dramatically shortened three-hour window. This sweeping policy shift, announced on Tuesday, represents a substantial tightening of the previous 36-hour compliance timeline established under the nation’s 2021 Information Technology rules.
The accelerated takedown requirement presents formidable operational challenges for major technology corporations including Meta Platforms, YouTube (Google), and X (formerly Twitter), potentially straining their content moderation capabilities and legal review processes. The amended regulations emerge amid ongoing tensions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and global technology firms regarding digital governance and free speech parameters.
In a notable modification from earlier proposals, the government relaxed requirements concerning artificial intelligence-generated content. Instead of mandating that platforms visibly label AI-generated material across ten percent of its surface area or duration, the revised rules now stipulate that such content must be “prominently labelled” without specifying exact placement parameters.
This regulatory development occurs within a broader context of India’s increasingly assertive digital policy landscape, which has previously addressed concerns regarding age-based social media restrictions, data privacy protections, and children’s online safety measures. The three-hour compliance window represents one of the world’s most stringent content removal mandates, potentially establishing a precedent for other nations considering similar regulatory approaches to digital content governance.