MeitY may allow more time to spike toxic online content

NEW DELHI: The government may give internet and social media companies more time – up to 36 hours – under the intermediary guidelines to remove or disable access to unlawful content on their platforms.

According to the Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules released in December, which are currently being finalised, the ministry of electronics and IT had proposed that such companies would have to provide information to any government agency, including tracing the origin of messages, within 72 hours and remove the content within 24 hours.

The time to disable access or remove content is being increased to 36 hours, a senior government official told ET. “This is being done to bring it at par with the current provisions under the IT Act,” the official said.