India's IT Rules, 2021 — MeitY consolidated text as amended to 10 February 2026 (G.S.R. 120(E))

This is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's consolidated text of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, carrying the header "[updated as on 10.02.2026]". The 2026 changes it incorporates were made by G.S.R. 120(E), dated 10.02.2026; the document's footnote apparatus attributes each amended provision to its notification, which is how the notification number is recoverable from the consolidated text. The topic page is India IT Rules Amendment 2026 (Synthetically Generated Information).

The Rules are subordinate legislation made under section 87(1) and clauses (z) and (zg) of section 87(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), in supersession of the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. They are not primary legislation, and their enforcement mechanism is the conditional safe harbour of section 79 rather than a direct penalty.

Amendment history recorded in the text

Definitions inserted by G.S.R. 120(E)

Rule 2(1)(wa) — synthetically generated information. "Audio, visual or audio-visual information which is artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified or altered using a computer resource, in a manner that such information appears to be real, authentic or true and depicts or portrays any individual or event in a manner that is, or is likely to be perceived as indistinguishable from a natural person or real-world event."

A proviso excludes three classes:

• (a) "routine or good-faith editing, formatting, enhancement, technical correction, colour adjustment, noise reduction, transcription, or compression that does not materially alter, distort, or misrepresent the substance, context, or meaning" of the underlying material;
• (b) "routine or good-faith creation, preparation, formatting, presentation or design of documents, presentations, portable document format (PDF) files, educational or training materials, research outputs, including the use of illustrative, hypothetical, draft, template-based or conceptual content," where it does not result in a false document or false electronic record;
• (c) use of computer resources "solely for improving accessibility, clarity, quality, translation, description, searchability, or discoverability, without generating, altering, or manipulating any material part" of the underlying material.

Rule 2(1)(ca) — audio, visual or audio-visual information. A companion definition covering "any audio, image, photograph, graphic, video, moving visual recording, sound recording or any other audio, visual or audio-visual content, with or without accompanying audio, whether created, generated, modified or altered through any computer resource."

Rule 2(1A). Any reference to "information" in the context of information used to commit an unlawful act — expressly including rule 3(1)(b), rule 3(1)(d), rule 4(2) and rule 4(4) — "shall be construed to include synthetically generated information, unless the context otherwise requires." This clause is what carries SGI into the pre-existing prohibited-content and traceability machinery without rewriting each provision.

Rule 2(1B). Removal of or disabling access to any information, including SGI, in compliance with the Rules — including by "deploying reasonable and appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms" — "shall not amount to a violation of the conditions specified under clauses (a) or (b) of sub-section (2) of section 79 of the Act." The clause protects an intermediary's safe harbour against the argument that acting on content is itself an exercise of editorial control.

Rule 3(3) — due diligence in relation to synthetically generated information

The obligation attaches to any intermediary that "offers a computer resource which may enable, permit, or facilitate the creation, generation, modification, alteration, publication, transmission, sharing, or dissemination of information as synthetically generated information" — that is, to the generative service, not only to the hosting platform.

Sub-rule 3(3)(a)(i) — prohibited categories. The intermediary must deploy "reasonable and appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms" to prevent users from producing SGI that violates any law in force, the text naming the Information Technology Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (32 of 2012), and the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 (6 of 1908). Four categories are enumerated:

• (I) child sexual exploitative and abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, or material that is "obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another person's privacy, including bodily privacy, vulgar, indecent or sexually explicit";
• (II) material resulting in "the creation, generation, modification or alteration of any false document or false electronic record";
• (III) material relating to "the preparation, development or procurement of explosive material, arms or ammunition";
• (IV) material that "falsely depicts or portrays a natural person or real-world event by misrepresenting, in a manner that is likely to deceive, such person's identity, voice, conduct, action, statement, or such event as having occurred, with or without the involvement of natural person."

Sub-rule 3(3)(a)(ii) — labelling and provenance. Every item of SGI not caught by (a)(i) must be "prominently labelled in a manner that ensures prominent visibility in the visual display that is easily noticeable and adequately perceivable, or, in the case of audio content, through a prominently prefixed audio disclosure," sufficient "to immediately identify that such information is synthetically generated information." Separately, it "shall be embedded with a permanent metadata or other appropriate technical provenance mechanisms, to the extent technically feasible, including a unique identifier, to identify the computer resource of the intermediary used to create, generate, modify or alter such information." The two duties are addressed to different readers — the label to a human viewer, the identifier to a machine — and only the second carries the feasibility qualifier.

Sub-rule 3(3)(b). The intermediary "shall not enable the modification, suppression or removal of the label, permanent metadata, including the unique identifier."

Compressed timelines

G.S.R. 120(E) shortened four clocks, each recorded in the consolidated text as a substitution:

Under rule 3(1)(d) as amended, actual knowledge arises only by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction or by "a reasoned intimation, in writing," issued by an officer authorised by order in writing for that purpose by the Appropriate Government or its agency — a formality tightened by the earlier G.S.R. 775(E) of 22 October 2025 and carried forward.

Rule 4 — significant social media intermediaries

Rule 4(1A), inserted by G.S.R. 120(E). A significant social media intermediary enabling display, upload or publication of information must, prior to publication: (a) require users to declare whether the information is SGI; (b) "deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms, to verify the accuracy of such declaration, having regard to the nature, format, and source of such information"; and (c) where the declaration or verification confirms SGI, ensure it is "clearly and prominently displayed with an appropriate label or notice."

A proviso deems the intermediary to have failed its due diligence where it "becomes aware, or it is otherwise established, that the intermediary knowingly permitted, promoted, or failed to act upon such synthetically generated information in contravention of these rules." An Explanation states that the responsibility "shall extend to taking reasonable and proportionate technical measures to verify the correctness of user declarations and to ensure that no synthetically generated information is published without such declaration or label."

Rule 4(4) — proactive identification. The obligation to proactively identify material depicting rape or child sexual abuse, "whether explicit or implicit," and material "exactly identical in content" to material previously removed under rule 3(1)(d), was strengthened by G.S.R. 120(E) from "endeavour to deploy technology-based measures, including automated tools or other mechanisms" to "deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms" — a change from best-efforts to obligation. The intermediary must also display a notice to any user attempting to access such information. Three provisos qualify it: the measures must be proportionate having regard to free speech and expression and to user privacy; the intermediary must implement mechanisms for human oversight including periodic review of any automated tools; and that review must evaluate the tools for accuracy and fairness, propensity for bias and discrimination, and impact on privacy and security.

Unchanged rule 4 machinery the SGI duties layer onto: a Chief Compliance Officer, a 24×7 nodal contact person and a Resident Grievance Officer, all resident in India; monthly compliance reports including counts of links removed under proactive monitoring; first-originator traceability for messaging services under rule 4(2), limited by four provisos including a five-year-imprisonment offence threshold and a less-intrusive-means test; and voluntary user verification under rule 4(7).

Provenance and a correction to prior sourcing

Retrieved on August 9, 2026 by parsing the PDF hosted on meity.gov.in, the ministry's own domain. The text is the ministry's consolidated compilation rather than the Gazette notification itself; the notification number, G.S.R. 120(E) dated 10.02.2026, is stated in the document's footnotes.

The consolidated text does not state a commencement date for the 2026 amendments; unlike the 2022 amendments, whose footnotes carry "(w.e.f. 28.10.2022)", the G.S.R. 120(E) footnotes give the notification date only. The 20 February 2026 commencement date carried on India IT Rules Amendment 2026 (Synthetically Generated Information) rests on practitioner analyses rather than on this document.

A Press Information Bureau release previously cited on that page as documenting this notification, PRID 2181719, is a release of 23 October 2025 concerning the Amendment Rules, 2025 — the rule 3(1)(d) senior-authorisation changes made by G.S.R. 775(E) and effective 15 November 2025. It is a different instrument and has been removed from the topic page's account of the 2026 amendments.

Relationships

• supports: India IT Rules Amendment 2026 (Synthetically Generated Information) — the primary text behind the topic page.
• related: China — Provisions on the Administration of Deep Synthesis Internet Information Services — the closest labelling-plus-identifier analogue.
• related: EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) — transparency obligations for synthetic content.
• related: Synthetic Media / Deepfakes, AI Content Provenance, Data Provenance, C2PA, and Watermarking — the mechanisms rule 3(3)(a)(ii) invokes.
• related: TAKE IT DOWN Act, State Deepfake Statutes (MN, WA, TX, CA) — overlapping subject matter under a different enforcement architecture.