MediaNama’s Take
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) latest advisory underscores a familiar regulatory approach: placing the primary burden of policing online speech squarely on intermediaries, while retaining the threat of criminal liability if they fall short. Although the advisory reiterates existing legal duties rather than introducing new rules, its cumulative effect adds to the compliance load platforms already face under India’s expanding digital governance framework.
For large platforms, this translates into sustained investments in moderation systems, automated tools, and grievance redressal infrastructure. However, the challenge becomes more complex for global platforms with permissive content policies. Services such as Reddit, which allow not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content within clearly labelled communities and rely heavily on community-level moderation, will have to assess how these decentralised structures align with India’s expectations under intermediary law.
X faces a similar tension. The platform’s public policies permit consensual adult content, subject to labelling and visibility controls, rather than a blanket prohibition. As a result, enforcement under Indian law will depend not only on platform rules but also on how consistently platforms review content once authorities or users flag it or otherwise bring it to the company’s attention.
More broadly, the advisory reflects a continued shift of responsibility from the state to private platforms. This pattern also emerged in MeitY’s Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII) Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which drew criticism for concentrating on takedown timelines, already among the strictest globally, while offering less clarity on improving investigative capacity, dealing appropriately with victims, or streamlining coordination among law enforcement agencies.
As the government leans further on intermediary compliance, the unresolved question remains whether expanding platform obligations can meaningfully address enforcement gaps without parallel institutional reform.
What’s the news?
MeitY has asked intermediaries, including social media platforms, to curb the hosting and circulation of obscene, pornographic, vulgar, and other unlawful content on their platforms, through an advisory dated December 29, 2025, seen by MediaNama. Issued by MeitY’s Cyber Laws Division, the advisory reminds platforms of their statutory due diligence obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules).
The ministry said it has, over time, received reports and representations through public discourse, stakeholder submissions, and judicial observations indicating that certain categories of content circulating on intermediary platforms may not comply with existing laws on decency and obscenity….
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