Introduction
On 22 October 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY) issued a draft notification proposing amendments
(Draft Amendments) to the Information Technology (Intermediary
Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT
Rules). The Draft Amendments seek to reinforce the regulatory
perimeter of the IT Rules by introducing the concept of
"synthetically generated information"—a
phrase intended to capture deepfakes, AI-generated, and
algorithmically modified content.
The stated objective of the proposed amendment is to strengthen
user safety, traceability, and accountability obligations for
intermediaries—entities that receive, store, transmit, or
provide services with respect to electronic records on behalf of
others. The framework also covers social media intermediaries
(platforms enabling online interaction and content dissemination)
and significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) (defined as
platforms with more
