{"id":194629,"date":"2026-02-10T20:46:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=194629"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:55:35","slug":"india-tightens-grip-on-social-media-orders-removal-of-unlawful-content-within-3-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/02\/10\/india-tightens-grip-on-social-media-orders-removal-of-unlawful-content-within-3-hours.html","title":{"rendered":"India tightens grip on social media, orders removal of \u2018unlawful\u2019 content within 3 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-194630\" src=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media.jpg 800w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media-367x220.jpg 367w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media-780x468.jpg 780w, https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>New Delhi: The Indian government has announced stricter social media regulations, requiring platforms to take down content deemed \u2018unlawful\u2019 within three hours of being notified about it, sharply reducing the earlier 36-hour timeline.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kashmir Media Service, the move is likely to make compliance more challenging for global platforms such as Meta, YouTube, and X. The changes have been introduced through amendments to India\u2019s 2021 Information Technology (IT) Rules, which have already caused friction between the BJP-led Indian government and global technology companies.<\/p>\n<p>The amended rules also introduce relaxations related to content generated through artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n<p>The new regulations will come into effect from February 20.<\/p>\n<p>The tighter timeline marks the latest escalation in India\u2019s efforts to control online speech.<\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s IT rules empower the government to order the removal of content deemed illegal under various laws, including those related to national security, public order and sexual offenses.<\/p>\n<p>The country has issued thousands of takedown orders in recent years, according to platform transparency reports.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, X was involved in a tense battle with the Indian government, which has often asked it to restrict content alleging Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist government is trying to silence criticism, including of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Internet freedom advocates have warned that new Indian social media regulations could pose a threat to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: The Indian government has announced stricter social media regulations, requiring platforms to take down content deemed \u2018unlawful\u2019 within three hours of being notified about it, sharply reducing the earlier 36-hour timeline. According to Kashmir Media Service, the move is likely to make compliance more challenging for global platforms such as Meta, YouTube, and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":194630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/india-social-media.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194633,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194629\/revisions\/194633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}