India orders social media firms to remove unlawful content within three hours

BBC News - WorldEN 3 min read 100% complete February 11, 2026 at 09:27 AM

AI Summary

medium article 3 min

India has mandated that social media companies, including Meta, YouTube, and X, remove unlawful content within three hours of notification, effective February 20. This significantly reduces the previous 36-hour deadline. The new rules apply to AI-generated content, requiring platforms to label such material and implement tools to detect and prevent illegal AI content, including deepfakes and child sexual abuse material. The government has not stated the reason for the change. Experts and digital rights groups have expressed concerns about potential censorship and the feasibility of implementing the new regulations. In 2024, over 28,000 URLs were blocked following government requests.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Abhishek Dey 30% BBC ×240% Internet Freedom Foundation 40% Google 50% Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology 60% YouTube 60% X ×270% Meta ×270% India ×390%

Keywords

india 90% social media 90% unlawful content 80% content removal 70% ai-generated content 70% online speech 60% information technology rules 50% censorship 50% transparency reports 40% digital rights 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

BBC News - World

Classification Confidence

90%

Geographic Perspective

India

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis.

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india social media unlawful content content removal ai-generated content online speech information technology rules censorship transparency reports digital rights

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