IndiaSynthetically Generated Information Labelling Duty for Intermediaries
Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, rule 3(3), as inserted by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 120(E), dated )
In force since .
An AI transparency rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- If you operate a computer resource that may enable the creation, generation, modification, alteration, publication, transmission, sharing or dissemination of synthetically generated information, prominently label such information, in the visual display or by a prefixed audio disclosure, so a viewer can immediately identify it as synthetically generated.
- Embed synthetically generated information with permanent metadata or another technical provenance mechanism, including a unique identifier, to the extent technically feasible, and do not enable removal, suppression or modification of that label or metadata.
- Deploy reasonable and appropriate technical measures, including automated tools, so that no user can create, publish or share synthetically generated information that violates the law, such as child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, a false document or electronic record, material on preparing explosives, arms or ammunition, or a deceptive depiction of a real person or event.
- Inform your users that directing or causing your computer resource to produce or spread such prohibited information may attract penalty or punishment under law, and may lead to removal of the information, suspension or termination of the user's account without vitiating the evidence, and disclosure of the user's identity to a victim who complains.
- If you run a social media platform with registered users in India above the threshold the Central Government notifies for a significant social media intermediary, require each user to declare, before display, whether information is synthetically generated, verify the declaration with appropriate technical measures, and label information confirmed as synthetic.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MEASURE 2.8Risks associated with transparency and accountability – as identified in the MAP function – are examined and documented.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Rule 3(3) requires an intermediary to label synthetically generated information and embed it with permanent metadata or another technical provenance mechanism, but it states no duty to create, keep, or later produce a separate log or record of that labelling or embedding. A general data-retention duty for intermediaries does exist elsewhere in these Rules, at rule 3(1)(g) (preservation of removed or disabled information for 180 days for investigation purposes) and rule 3(1)(h) (retention of a user's registration information for 180 days after cancellation or withdrawal), but both sit in clauses (g) and (h) of rule 3(1), which this row does not cover. Rules 3(1)(ca), 3(3)(a)(i) and 4(1A) ask for technical measures, a notice to users and a user declaration, and none of them states a duty to create, keep or produce a log.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Rule 3(3), inserted into the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021 by amendment notified , applies where an intermediary offers a computer resource which may enable, permit, or facilitate the creation, generation, modification, alteration, publication, transmission, sharing, or dissemination of information as synthetically generated information.
Such an intermediary must ensure that any such information not falling within a listed prohibited category (such as child sexual exploitative material or content falsely depicting a real person or event) is prominently labelled, in the visual display or by a prefixed audio disclosure, so a viewer can immediately identify it as synthetically generated.
It must also embed that information with permanent metadata or another technical provenance mechanism, including a unique identifier, to the extent technically feasible. The intermediary must not enable removal, suppression or modification of that label or metadata.
"Synthetically generated information" is defined as audio, visual or audio-visual information artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified or altered using a computer resource so that it appears real, authentic or true, subject to listed exclusions for routine or good-faith editing, formatting and accessibility work.
Under rule 3(3)(a)(i), such an intermediary must also deploy reasonable and appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms, to not allow any user to create, generate, modify, alter, publish, transmit, share or disseminate synthetically generated information that violates any law in force.
The rule's listed examples include information that contains child sexual exploitative and abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery content, or is obscene, pornographic, invasive of another person's privacy or sexually explicit. Under rule 3(1)(ca), an intermediary of that kind must additionally inform its users that directing or causing its computer resource to produce or spread such prohibited synthetically generated information may attract penalty or punishment under any law in force.
Rule 3(1)(ca) also requires that notice to say that such a contravention may lead to the immediate disabling of access to or removal of the information, suspension or termination of the violating user's account without vitiating the evidence, and disclosure of the violating user's identity to a complainant who is a victim of the contravention or acts on a victim's behalf.
A significant social media intermediary is a social media intermediary with registered users in India above the threshold the Central Government notifies. Under rule 4(1A), a significant social media intermediary that enables displaying, uploading or publishing information must, before that display, require users to declare whether the information is synthetically generated and deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools, to verify the accuracy of the declaration.
Where the declaration or verification confirms that the information is synthetically generated, that intermediary must ensure it is clearly and prominently displayed with a label or notice saying so. These provisions have applied since , the day the amendment rules state they come into force; the amendment was notified on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app generates content with AI or operates a social platform.
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