Act on obscene, unlawful content or face consequences: Govt's warning to online platforms

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) The Centre has warned online platforms, mainly social media firms, of legal consequences if they fail to act on obscene, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic and other forms of unlawful content.

In an advisory dated December 29, 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) asked social media firms to immediately review their compliance framework and act against obscene and unlawful content on their platform, failing which they may face prosecution under the law of the land.

"Intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, are reminded that they are statutorily obligated under Section 79 of the IT Act... to observe, due diligence as a condition for availing exemption from liability in respect of third-party information uploaded, published, hosted, shared or transmitted on or through their platforms," the advisory said.

The advisory follows the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) observing that social media platforms have not been strictly acting on obscene, vulgar, inappropriate, and unlawful content.

"It is reiterated that non-compliance with the provisions of the IT Act and/or the IT Rules, 2021 may result in consequences, including prosecution under the IT Act, BNS, and other applicable criminal laws, against the intermediaries, platforms and their users," the advisory said.

The advisory reminded social media firms of provisions of IT Act and IT Rules 2021 that mandate online platforms to make reasonable efforts to ensure that users of their computer resources do not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to children, or otherwise unlawful.

Meity said it has come to its notice that there is a need for greater consistency and rigour in the observance of due diligence obligations by intermediaries, particularly in relation to the identification, reporting and expeditious removal of content that is obscene, indecent, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to child or otherwise unlawful, as prescribed under the IT Act and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The IT ministry has asked intermediaries to act expeditiously to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receipt of actual knowledge, through court orders or reasoned intimation from the appropriate government or its authorised agency, and to do so strictly within the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules of 2021.

"The intermediaries shall not permit the hosting, displaying, uploading, publication, transmission, storage, sharing of any content that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law for the time being in force in any manner whatsoever," the advisory said.

The IT Rules 2021 mandate that intermediaries shall remove or disable access to any content that is prima facie in the nature of material depicting an individual in any sexual act or conduct, or any impersonation thereof, within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint from the affected individual or any person on such individual's behalf.

The advisory has asked online platforms to undertake an immediate review of their internal compliance frameworks, content moderation practices and user enforcement mechanisms, and to ensure strict and continuous adherence to the provisions of the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021. PTI PRS TRB