Representational (AI generated).
New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed sweeping amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, triggering alarm among digital rights advocates who warn of a sharp expansion in government control over online speech, particularly news and current affairs content, The Wire reported.
The proposed changes, released as the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026, aim to extend the government’s oversight mechanisms beyond publishers to include intermediaries and even ordinary users who share or post news-related content online. Stakeholder feedback has been invited until April 14.
Activists, including the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), have strongly criticised the move, describing it as a dangerous consolidation of executive power. They argue that the amendments would effectively allow the government to regulate and potentially censor user-generated news content by bringing such material under existing blocking and oversight provisions.
The draft rules provide for an amendment under Rule 8(1), through which Rules 14 (which calls for an Inter-Departmental Committee), 15 (lays down procedures and directions to block content) and 16 (emergency blocking provisions), shall apply to “a) intermediaries; and (b) news and current affairs content hosted, displayed, uploaded, modified, published, transmitted, stored, updated or shared on the computer resources of the intermediaries by users who are not publishers”, The Wire report says.
The draft rules also provide for amendments to Rule 3(1)(g) and 3(1)(h), which make data retention obligatory, along with such requirements under any other law. It also provides that an intermediary shall comply with and give effect to a clarification, advisory, order, direction, standard operating procedure, code of practice or guideline given in writing.
Further, the draft also proposes an amendment to Rule 14 (2) and expands the scope of inter-departmental committees from hearing “complaints or grievances” to hearing “matters”, including those referred to by MeitY.
Observers say this could reintroduce contested oversight mechanisms that courts have previously questioned, but through procedural changes.
Rights groups have urged the government to withdraw the amendments, warning that the proposals bypass judicial scrutiny and undermine constitutional protections for free speech.