Intermediaries: A New Playbook Beyond Passive Compliance

1.         Introduction

Intermediary liability in India is governed by section 79 of the Information Technology Act (“IT Act”).This section provides safe harbour protection to intermediaries for third-party information, subject to compliance with due diligence obligations under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Intermediary Rules”), particularly Part II, which governs intermediary conduct. On March 30, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) released draft amendments for public consultation. These seek to expand regulatory oversight over intermediaries. In particular, the amendments propose to recognise guidelines issued by MeitY as binding due diligence obligations and expand the regulatory ambit of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (“MIB”) to intermediaries, including news and current affairs hosted by ordinary users. The amendments blur the distinction between intermediaries and