Intermediary Rules, 2021

If you run a social media, messaging, or digital media platform, the 2021 Rules require you to do three things:

• Appoint a Grievance Officer to receive and act on user complaints.
• Reply on time once a complaint or takedown request is received.
• Remove certain flagged content promptly, in line with the categories the Rules identify.

A social media platform with more than fifty lakh (5 million) registered users in India is a "significant social media intermediary" and has extra duties (Rule 2(1)(v); MeitY notification S.O. 942(E), 25 February 2021).

Law — extra duties for large platforms (Rule 4(1)). A significant social media intermediary must:

• Appoint a Chief Compliance Officer (Rule 4(1)(a)).
• Appoint a nodal contact person for 24x7 contact with law enforcement (Rule 4(1)(b)).
• Appoint a Resident Grievance Officer (Rule 4(1)(c)).
• Publish a compliance report every month (Rule 4(1)(d)).

Law — losing safe harbour (Rule 7). If a platform fails to follow these Rules, Section 79(1) of the IT Act does not protect it. It can then be punished under any law in force.

Law — time limits (as amended on 10 February 2026):

• Court or government removal order: act within 3 hours (Rule 3(1)(d)).
• Resolve a user complaint: within 7 days (Rule 3(2)(a)(i)).
• Certain removal complaints: within 36 hours (Rule 3(2)(a)(i), first proviso).
• Nudity or impersonation complaints: remove within 2 hours (Rule 3(2)(b)).

Law — appeals. Unhappy with the Grievance Officer's decision? You can appeal to a Grievance Appellate Committee within thirty days (Rule 3A(3)). The Committee should try to decide within thirty calendar days (Rule 3A(4)). The whole appeal runs online (Rule 3A(6)). The platform must follow its order (Rule 3A(7)).

Law — Digital Media Ethics Code. Part III covers news and online content publishers. They must follow the Code of Ethics in the Appendix (Rule 9(1)). Complaints go through three levels: the publisher, a self-regulating body, then government oversight (Rule 9(3)).

These duties apply to intermediarys operating in India — a platform that hosts or carries other people's content. They sit on top of the safe-harbour framework in the IT Act, 2000. The 2021 Rules are also the vehicle for later synthetic-media amendments. See the 2025–2026 updates.

In plain English: if you run a platform that hosts user content, expect three things. You must appoint a grievance officer. You face a clock on your complaint responses. And you must act on pre-defined categories of content.