Govt Proposes Making Advisories Legally Binding On Tech Giants

bengaluru : India on Monday proposed amending its IT law to make recommendations and disclosures legally binding on internet platforms such as Meta, Google and X, the latest in a series of stricter compliance requirements for tech giants.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government this year compressed the timeline for platforms to remove content flagged by authorities from 36 hours to three hours and introduced new obligations on AI-generated content and deepfakes.

Currently, the IT ministry’s recommendations to platforms on issues ranging from deepfake tagging to content removal practices serve as guidance without clear legal implications.

In the new rules proposed on Monday, the government said failure to comply with recommendations or guidelines issued by the IT ministry would be considered as failure to meet safe harbour conditions, the legal shield that protects platforms from liability for content posted by their users.

The changes were proposed to “strengthen the enforceability” of the guidelines and “increase legal certainty,” the ministry said in a statement seeking public feedback by April 14.

Meta, Google and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.