2022 Intermediary Rules Amendment

You will remember that India issued a new set of intermediary safe harbour rules in mid-2021. These rules, inter alia, required certain due diligences to be observed by Internet intermediaries in order for them to claim a 'safe harbor' protection against liability for content carried on their platforms. In particular, it required additional compliances of significant social media intermediaries and curators of online content. You can read BTG's updates on these rules here, here (about a set of amendments proposed earlier this year), and here.

Last Friday, the Indian Government released new amendments to the 2021 Rules, notifying the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022 ("2022 Amendment"). The 2022 Amendment has been published in the Official Gazette here, and is already in force. In explanatory comments published here, this 2022 Amendment is intended to "enhance(s) due diligence requirements and