On 10 February 2026,
the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
(MeitY) formally notified
the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines
and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules,
2026 via Gazette Notification G.S.R.
120(E), amending the existing 2021 IT Rules under
the Information Technology Act, 2000. The new
framework takes effect from 20 February 2026,
marking the most significant regulatory intervention in
India's content governance regime since the original rules
were introduced in 2021.
Why It Matters
The 2026 Amendment Rules explicitly
incorporate synthetically generated information
(SGI) — including AI-generated text, images,
audio, and video — into the due diligence obligations of
intermediaries such as social media platforms and messaging
services. This repositioning reflects urgent governmental concerns
around deepfakes, misinformation, impersonation
content, and other AI-enabled harms that have
proliferated rapidly with
