Recalibrating Intermediary Liability: India’s Draft Second Amendment To The IT Rules, 2026

India's approach to regulating digital intermediaries has never been static. It has evolved in discrete, accelerating steps, incrementally seeking to address various internet governance aspects through the route of intermediary regulation. The Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026 (‘Draft Second Amendment’) is also a consequential step in that direction. 

The IT Rules, 2021, replaced the previous framework with a tiered compliance architecture, imposing heightened obligations on Significant Social Media Intermediaries (‘SSMIs’) and establishing a three-tier grievance mechanism. However, rapid expansion in the use of Generative AI tools has posed yet another challenge for the rules to mount. While certain advisories issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MEITY’) aimed to address such aspects, they lacked statutory force and were not enforced thoroughly.