Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021

Online child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, includes digital content depicting or facilitating the sexual abuse or exploitation of children. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 impose general duties on all intermediaries and additional proactive duties on significant social media intermediaries.

Legal basis and responsibility

The Rules operate under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Intermediary safe harbour under Section 79 is conditional on observing due diligence, while Section 67B criminalises specified electronic activities involving sexually explicit material concerning children.

• The POCSO Act, 2012 separately requires any person who apprehends or knows of a POCSO offence to report it to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or local police.

Duties applicable to social media intermediaries

An intermediary must publish its user rules and make reasonable efforts to prevent users from hosting prohibited content, including material that is paedophilic, pornographic, obscene, invasive of bodily privacy or harmful to a child.

• On actual knowledge through a court order or authorised government notice, unlawful content must be removed or access disabled within 36 hours.
• A qualifying complaint about nudity, exposure of private areas or sexual acts must be acted upon within 24 hours under Rule 3(2)(b).
• Removed information and associated records must be preserved for 180 days, or longer when lawfully required, to support investigation.
• Intermediaries must provide information or assistance to authorised government agencies within 24 hours of receiving a lawful written order.

Additional duty of significant social media intermediaries

Under Rule 4(4), a significant social media intermediary must endeavour to deploy technology-based measures, including automated tools, to proactively identify content depicting rape or child sexual abuse, whether explicit or implicit, and content identical to material previously removed pursuant to a lawful order.

• Such measures must be proportionate and incorporate safeguards for free speech, privacy, accuracy, human oversight and periodic review.
• Users must receive notice when access to their content is disabled through proactive technological measures.