6 days ago

India Cracks Down on Child Abuse Content

India on Wednesday tightened its digital safety rules, requiring social media companies to remove unlawful content far more quickly and imposing new obligations on platforms to identify and curb child sexual abuse material and harmful artificial intelligence-generated content.

The move follows reports that advertisements linked to child sexual abuse material had appeared on social media platforms, prompting the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to seek an explanation from the intermediary involved. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also issued notices to the platforms.

The revised rules reduce the deadline for removing unlawful content from 36 hours to three hours after a court order or a reasoned notice from the government. Complaints involving non-consensual intimate images, nudity or digitally altered explicit content must be addressed within two hours.

The changes are among India’s most aggressive efforts yet to pressure technology companies to police content more rapidly as the country grapples with the spread of child exploitation material, deepfakes and other forms of synthetic media generated by artificial intelligence.

The government said platforms would now be expected to label AI-generated content where appropriate, preserve metadata to improve traceability and deploy technical tools capable of detecting child sexual abuse material, rape-related imagery and content that has previously been removed for violating the law. The updated framework also expands the due diligence responsibilities of intermediaries, requiring them to report offenses under criminal law, including those covered by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, to the appropriate authorities.

Officials said companies that fail to comply risk losing the legal protections that shield online intermediaries from liability for user-generated content, potentially exposing them to prosecution under Indian law. The announcement builds on a series of government advisories issued over the past year urging technology companies to strengthen content moderation, curb the spread of unlawful AI-generated material and respond more quickly to complaints involving online abuse.

The measures were detailed in a written response by Jitin Prasada, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, in Parliament on Wednesday.