India Imposes AI Social Media Curbs
In a significant move towards regulating artificial intelligence (AI) content on social media platforms, India has announced new restrictions that will take effect on February 20, 2026. These measures aim to enhance accountability while promoting innovation.
Key Regulations
The new regulations outline several important requirements for social media platforms:
- Prominent Labeling: AI-generated content must be clearly labeled, ensuring users can easily identify it.
- Reduced Time Frames: The time allowed for social media platforms to remove illegal content, including non-consensual deepfakes, has been significantly cut. Platforms are now required to act within two to three hours, down from the previous 36-hour window.
- Legal Compliance: Content deemed illegal by a court or an appropriate government authority must be taken down within three hours, while sensitive content featuring non-consensual nudity and deepfakes must be removed within two hours.
Labeling Requirements
The draft rules specify that 10% of any imagery must be covered in the labeling disclosure. However, some flexibility has been granted to platforms. Additionally, the labeling must consist of permanent markings that cannot be removed, ensuring ongoing visibility.
Consequences for Non-Compliance
Under Indian IT law, failure to comply with these new regulations will result in the loss of safe harbor protection. This principle protects platforms from liability for user-generated content, making compliance crucial for maintaining operational safeguards.
Context and Implications
This announcement comes ahead of the upcoming India AI Impact Summit, scheduled to take place in New Delhi next week. The government emphasizes that its focus on AI governance seeks to balance innovation with accountability, marking a proactive approach to managing emerging technologies.
India has positioned itself as the world’s third-largest AI talent hub and leads globally in AI skill penetration, as reported by Stanford’s AI Index. In a show of confidence in the sector, major tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively committed over $50 billion in investments towards cloud and AI infrastructure in India last year. Furthermore, the Indian government has extended a tax holiday for companies developing data center infrastructure to support global markets.
