India has taken significant steps to enhance its regulatory framework surrounding social media platforms, specifically targeting deepfakes and AI-generated impersonations. In October 2025, the Indian government cut down on the number of officials who could order content to be removed from the internet. This decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by X, the social media platform previously called Twitter, against this decision. They raised concerns about the scope and transparency of the government’s takedown powers.
This decrease in authorized officials is meant to address decades-old criticism. In doing so, this move addresses concerns expressed by social media platforms and civil society organizations. In this context, we have repeatedly centered the voices of affected stakeholders who have been crucial to shining light on the overbroad and vague government content remove orders. Elon Musk’s X has sued the Indian government. The platform claims the directives are an example of governmental overreach and do not adequately safeguard users and content creators.
“The law, however, continues to require intermediaries to remove content upon being aware or receiving actual knowledge, that too within three hours.” – Aprajita Rana
In the midst of this turbulence, India has moved forward with a host of new regulatory measures. These demand that social media platforms do more to police deepfakes and other AI-generated impersonations. The EU government has mandated that these platforms respond to takedown orders within a new reduced timeframe of three hours. This rapid response requirement has led to fears that there would be a lack of human review of content that was flagged.
The next AI Impact Summit will be held in New Delhi from Feb 16-20. It is poised to attract the world’s top technology executives and global tech focused policymakers. This event may serve as a pivotal forum for discussions around the implications of the newly amended regulations on AI technologies.
Those revised regulations will go into effect on February 20. They will go after the newest type of AI-generated audio-visual content, certainly not all online commercial speech. In an effort to curb the spread of harmful content, including child sexual abuse material and deceptive information, platforms will be required to implement labeling requirements across various formats. This is to help make sure users are informed about what kind of content they’re seeing online.
“These impossibly short timelines eliminate any meaningful human review.” – Internet Freedom Foundation
To facilitate compliance, social media companies are expected to deploy technical tools designed to verify user disclosures, identify, and label deepfakes effectively. There are indeed exceptions for using AI in superficial, cosmetic improvements, or efficiency enhancing manners that are considered routine. This provides firms in the industry some precious regulatory wriggle room to work around.
Rohit Kumar, founding partner at The Quantum Hub, remarked on the regulatory changes, stating, “The amended IT Rules mark a more calibrated approach to regulating AI-generated deepfakes.” This new perspective reflects a growing and much-needed movement toward a more intentional, goal-oriented, and principles-based regulatory paradigm for technological advancement.
The Indian government’s decision to tighten regulations comes amid increasing global scrutiny regarding the impact of AI technologies on society. As deepfakes grow in complexity and accessibility, fears of their potential to misinform and undermine public trust in information have escalated dramatically. India is taking the lead with stringent content moderation laws for social media platforms to address these issues. In addition, the country seeks to encourage a wave of innovation in the country’s digital economy.
Failure to comply with the new stringent regulations opens companies up to an increased risk of legal liability. This endangers their safe-harbor protections under Indian law. This development highlights the importance of closely following implementation of the new guidelines, which will apply to any social media platform that conducts business within the country.