MeitY Notifies Fresh IT Rules to Regulate AI-Generated Content, Deepfakes on Social Media Platforms

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, on Tuesday. The fresh rules focus heavily on artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content and deepfakes, bringing more flexible labelling guidelines for AI content and stricter takedown timelines for inappropriate media and deepfakes. These new sets of rules also more clearly define deepfakes and outline consequences for users who violate them. The framework will come into effect starting February 20, which also coincides with the last day of the inaugural AI Impact Summit, which is set to be hosted by India.

MeitY Introduces New Rules for AI Content Regulation

In a new notification (via Live Law), the ministry notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. As mentioned above, the rules will come into effect starting February 20, after a 10-day compliance window. These rules are mainly for social media platforms and their designated intermediaries, and mostly deal with how these platforms handle AI-generated content.

With this, the Government has now provided a specific definition of deepfakes. It is now defined as “audio, visual or audio-visual information which is artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified or altered using a computer resource, in a manner that such information appears to be real, authentic or true and depicts or portrays any individual or event in a manner that is, or is likely to be perceived as indistinguishable from a natural person or real-world event.”

The notified amendments also bring changes to several rules that were suggested by the Government in October 2025. The most notable is the takedown time for deepfakes and inappropriate content that was previously mentioned as 36 hours. With the notification, it has now been reduced to three hours after such content is first reported or detected.

However, on the flip side, MeitY has now removed the space requirement for visible AI labels. In October 2025, the Government said that a label should be applied to AI-generated content which covers at least 10 percent of the space. The new rule now mentions that the label should be “prominently” visible.

MeitY has also told social media intermediaries to inform users at least once every three months that the social media platforms will remove posts, ban accounts, and can also take legal action against users violating the rules or participating in illegal practices.

Along the same vein, the new rules now introduce consequences for violation of the rules. MeitY mandates that contraventions will now lead to suspension or termination of user accounts. Additionally, platforms will help in “identification of such user and disclosure of the identity of the violating user to the complainant.”

Social media intermediaries will also need to ask users to declare whenever a post contains synthetically generated information (SGI). They have also been mandated to equip appropriate tools to verify the accuracy of the declaration and to ensure that an AI label is prominently added to the post.