A new directive by the Indian government requiring social media companies to take down content it deems ‘unlawful’ within three hours of being notified about it is an “impossible” demand, experts have said.
The directive, that will also apply to AI-generated content, tightens an earlier 36-hour timeline in what could be a compliance challenge for Meta, YouTube and X.
The changes amend India’s 2021 IT rules, which have already been a flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and global technology companies.
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The amended rules also relaxes an earlier proposal that would have required platforms to visibly label AI-generated content across 10% of its surface area or duration, instead mandating that such content be “prominently labelled”.
The new regulations are scheduled to take effect from February 20.
“It’s practically impossible for social media firms to remove content in three hours,” Akash Karmakar, a partner at Indian law firm Panag & Babu who specialises in technology law, told Reuters. “This assumes no application of mind or real world ability to resist compliance.”
Facebook-owner Meta declined to comment on the changes, while X and Alphabet’s Google, which operates YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
India’s IT rules empower the government to order the removal of content deemed illegal under any of its laws, including those related to national security and public order.
The Narendra Modi-led government has issued thousands of takedown orders in recent years, according to platform transparency reports. Meta alone restricted more than 28,000 pieces of content in India in the first six months of 2025 following government requests, it disclosed.
“This rule was never in consultation. International standards provide a longer timeline,” a social media executive said on condition of anonymity.
Censorship fears
The move comes amid mounting global pressure on social media companies to police content more aggressively, with governments from Brussels to Brasilia demanding faster takedowns and greater accountability.
But it also reinforces India’s position as one of the world’s most aggressive regulators of online content, requiring platforms to balance compliance in a market of 1 billion internet users against mounting concerns over government censorship.
The government directive did not give any reason for the change in the timeline for takedowns.
India has taken many steps to control online speech, empowering scores of officers in recent years to order content removal. That has often drawn criticism from digital rights advocates and prompted clashes with companies including Elon Musk’s X.
“While these rules claim to address AI-generated content harms such as deepfakes, they introduce severe digital rights violations that fundamentally undermine constitutional protections,” India’s Internet Freedom Foundation said in a statement posted on X.
The IFF said the changes made by the government were not in-line with prior consultations with various stakeholders, such as the organisation. It also noted that the law had been expanded in ways that it would create privacy and censorship concerns.
Those changes include additions such as disclosure of identities of users whose content is taken down to complainants, requiring social media companies to deploy “automated tools” to prevent uploads of so-called unlawful content and vague rules that could “criminalise legitimate uses of AI”.
For instance, the rules prohibit Synthetically Generated Information (SGI) “falsely depicting or portraying” persons or events “in a manner that is likely to deceive”. That language is “so broad it could capture satire, parody, political commentary, and artistic expression.,” the IFF noted.
Nikhil Pahwa, one of the founders of IFF, said in a separate X post on Wednesday that it was not feasible for the Indian government to implement these regulations.
“It’s designed to fail and be implemented arbitrarily,” he said.
- Reuters, with additional editing and inputs from Vishakha Saxena
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