New Endorsement Guidelines For Social Media Influencers

Instagram's 2026 policy shift introduces mandatory AI-generated profile labels and penalties for non-disclosure, creating new compliance challenges at the intersection of platform governance and India's statutory framework for synthetically generated information. How do these overlapping regimes affect brands, influencers, and content creators operating in India's digital ecosystem?

On 31 August 2026, Instagram renamed its “AI creator” badge as the “AI-generated profile” label and announced that accounts featuring an AI-generated person without the label may see their reach limited. Seven weeks on, the question I hear most from clients, whether they are brands, agencies or individual creators, is a fair one: is this merely a platform housekeeping matter, or does it carry legal consequences in India?

India's telecom sector took a bold step in October 2025 when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) approved the rollout of the Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) system.

The Delhi High Court's landmark ruling in Telegram FZ LLC v. Union of India addresses whether Section 69A of the IT Act permits the government to block an entire platform rather than specific content. Following the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak scandal, where fraudulent channels circulated fake exam papers affecting millions of aspirants, the court upheld the Centre's power to impose a platform-wide ban on Telegram, sparking intense debate about the boundaries between examination integrity and digital censorship.

The Act, the Rules and the OGAI are therefore simultaneously operational. The prohibition provisions under Chapter III of the Act, the criminal penalties under Chapter V of the Act and the institutional framework under the Rules are all in effect. There is effectively no formal compliance window for core prohibitions and penalties; stakeholders should treat the regime as immediately operational and adjust business models without delay.

On February 10, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ("MeitY") notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules...

The Internet age has provided us a new medium to express ourselves. But the misuse of this technology is rampant.

India's online gaming sector has moved from a fragmented regime of state gambling laws and court-led 'skill versus chance' jurisprudence to a central, stakes-based statutory framework.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on February 10, 2026, introducing mandatory labelling for synthetically generated information and accelerated takedown timelines.

In mid-September 2026, government sources said Meta Platforms’ Indian operations, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, should no longer be viewed merely as an “internet intermediary” but should also be treated as a “service provider,” arguing that the company’s monetised algorithms actively decide what content gets amplified, distributed and shown to whom. That is a government position, not a new statutory classification, and this article returns to that distinction below.

On June 3, 2026, the Supreme Court of India’s AI Committee released preliminary draft of the Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Courts, 2026 (“The Draft”). This marks a shift from scattered experiments with AI tools for translation, transcription, research and case management. With over 93,000 pending matters as of March 2026, the guidelines aim to ease processes for officials and citizens. AI could help reduce backlogs through automated cause-list preparation, transcription, research, and defect scrutiny, but its use also raises serious concerns.

When an artificial intelligence system is trained on copyrighted news content, and later answers a user’s question using what it learned, has the law been broken? On 24th July 2026, the Delhi High Court answered that question, at least for now. In ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC, Justice Amit Bansal declined to grant an interim injunction against OpenAI, holding, on a prima facie, interim stage view, that the company’s use of ANI’s news content to train its large language models (“LLMs”) falls within the fair dealing exception under Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957

A gift deed is a legal document that facilitates the voluntary transfer of property from one person (the donor) to another (the donee) without any exchange of money or consideration.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court held that, the following twin test needs to be satisfied for an establishment to seek exemption from Section 16 (1) of the Act.

In mid-September 2026, government sources said Meta Platforms’ Indian operations, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, should no longer be viewed merely as an “internet intermediary” but should also be treated as a “service provider,” arguing that the company’s monetised algorithms actively decide what content gets amplified, distributed and shown to whom. That is a government position, not a new statutory classification, and this article returns to that distinction below.

The change is effected through two instruments: the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified via gazette on 10th March, 2026[1] (the “Amendment Regulations”), and a subsequent implementation order dated 13th March, 2026[2] (the “Order”) issued by FSSAI directing all licensing authorities to apply the revised thresholds with effect from 1st April, 2026.

Cybersecurity regulation in India has, until now, largely spoken to the entity that suffers the breach. The 2022 CERT-In Directions issued under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 fixed a six-hour reporting clock on the organisation that detects an incident. The new Guidelines flip the lens onto the entity upstream of that breach, the OEM or technology provider that built the product in the first place. For the first time, vendors supplying software, firmware, cloud platforms, or APIs into India carry direct, time-bound, and independently verifiable obligations of their own and not obligations that are merely passed through a customer contract, but obligations CERT-In itself may enforce.

On February 10, 2026, the Central Government notified the amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026 (hereinafter referred to as “IT Amendment Rules”), marking a significant shift in how India regulates Artificial Intelligence (AI) and synthetically generated content online.

Bail is decided at speed and on incomplete information, and the system has long struggled with a recurring problem: an applicant who does not disclose, or who actively suppresses, facts that bear on whether bail should be granted, from a string of earlier rejected bail pleas to a history of antecedents. The Supreme Court’s recent intervention addresses that problem directly, by requiring the material particulars to be placed before the court on oath.

India’s new labour code framework, comprising four consolidated codes enacted between 2019 and 2020, represents the most comprehensive overhaul of employment laws since independence. Among these, the Code on Wages, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the “Code”) amalgamates the Payment of Wages Act, 1936; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, into a single, unified enactment.