Act on obscene content or face action, govt warns social media firms

The Union government has warned online platforms, particularly social media firms, of legal consequences if they fail to act against obscene, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic, and other forms of unlawful content.

The advisory, by the Indian government, has asked online platforms to undertake an immediate review of their internal compliance frameworks, content moderation practices, and user enforcement mechanisms, and to ensure strict and continuous adherence to the provisions of the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021.

Centre's advisory

In an advisory dated December 29, 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked social media firms to immediately review their compliance frameworks and take action against obscene and unlawful content on their platforms, failing which they may face prosecution under the law of the land.

“Intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, are reminded that they are statutorily obligated under Section 79 of the IT Act to observe due diligence as a condition for availing exemption from liability in respect of third-party information uploaded, published, hosted, shared, or transmitted on or through their platforms,” the advisory said.

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The advisory followed observations by MeitY that social media platforms do not strictly act against obscene, vulgar, inappropriate, and unlawful content.

Warning of legal consequences

“It is reiterated that non-compliance with the provisions of the IT Act and/or the IT Rules, 2021, may result in consequences, including prosecution under the IT Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and other applicable criminal laws, against the intermediaries, platforms, and their users,” the advisory said.

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The advisory reminded social media firms of the provisions of the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021, which mandate online platforms to make reasonable efforts to ensure that users of their computer resources do not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to children, or otherwise unlawful.

Content moderation obligations

MeitY said it has come to its notice that there is a need for greater consistency and rigour in the observance of due diligence obligations by intermediaries, particularly in relation to the identification, reporting, and expeditious removal of content that is obscene, indecent, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to children, or otherwise unlawful, as prescribed under the IT Act and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The IT Ministry has asked intermediaries to act expeditiously to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receipt of actual knowledge through court orders or reasoned intimation from the appropriate government or its authorised agency, and to do so strictly within the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021.

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“The intermediaries shall not permit the hosting, displaying, uploading, publishing, transmitting, storing, or sharing of any content that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law for the time being in force, in any manner whatsoever,” the advisory said.

The IT Rules, 2021, mandate that intermediaries remove or disable access to any content that is prima facie in the nature of material depicting an individual in any sexual act or conduct, or any impersonation thereof, within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint from the affected individual or any person on such individual’s behalf.

(With agency inputs)