India Cuts Time Limit! Illegal Content Must Be Removed within 3 Hours or Be Threatened with Sanctions

JAKARTA - The Indian government has officially tightened rules for social media companies by requiring the removal of illegal content within a maximum of three hours after receiving a notification. This new rule cuts the previous deadline of 36 hours and is considered to be a major challenge for Meta, YouTube, and X.

The change is an amendment to the 2021 Information Technology (IT) Rules, which have been a source of tension between the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and global technology companies. The new regulation will come into force on February 20, 2026.

The move underlines India's position as one of the world's most aggressive online content regulators. With more than 1 billion internet users, digital platforms must now balance legal compliance with growing concerns about potential government censorship.

In its official notification on February 10, the government did not provide specific reasons related to the shortening of the deadline.

"It is practically impossible for social media companies to remove content within three hours," said Akash Karmakar, a partner at Indian law firm Panag and Babu specializing in technology law. "It seems to assume that there is no mature consideration or real ability in the field to review compliance."

A social media executive who did not want to be named also regretted the process of drafting the rules. "This rule has never been through consultation. International standards usually give a longer deadline," he said.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, declined to comment on the changes. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's X and Alphabet's Google, which operates YouTube, have not responded.

In recent years, India has taken various steps to control speech in the digital space. The government has empowered many officials to order the removal of content deemed to be in violation of the law, including those related to national security and public order. This policy has often drawn criticism from digital rights activists and sparked clashes with technology companies.

Based on the platform's transparency report, India has issued thousands of content removal orders. Meta revealed that in the first half of 2025 alone, the company restricted more than 28,000 content in India after receiving requests from the government.

In addition to cutting the deadline for deletion, the amendment to the rules also loosened the previous proposal regarding the labeling of artificial intelligence (AI) based content. If previously discussed that the AI label should cover 10 percent of the display or duration of the content, now the rules only require that the content be labeled "prominently".

Pressure on social media companies to be more aggressive in policing content is not just happening in India. Governments in various parts of the world, from Europe to Latin America, are also demanding faster removals and greater accountability.

But with a very short three-hour deadline, many parties assess that technology companies are now facing a serious dilemma: comply quickly with the risk of overblocking, or maintain a strict review process but are threatened with legal sanctions in one of the world's largest digital markets.