India’s government said on Tuesday social media companies will have to take down unlawful content within three hours of being notified about it.

This development tightened an earlier 36-hour timeline in what could be a compliance challenge for Meta, YouTube and X.

The changes amended India’s 2021 IT rules, which had already been a flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and global technology companies.

The amended rules also relaxed an earlier proposal that would have required platforms to visibly label AI-generated content across 10 per cent of its surface area or duration, instead mandating that such content be “prominently labelled”.

The new regulations will take effect from February 20.

The tighter timeline marked the latest escalation in India’s efforts to control online speech, with a takedown regime that had drawn criticism from digital rights advocates and prompted clashes with companies including Elon Musk’s X.

Facebook owner Meta (META.O) declined to comment on the changes, while X and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O), which operates YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The rules added to mounting global pressure on social media companies to police content more aggressively, with governments from Brussels to Brasilia demanding faster takedowns and greater accountability.

India’s IT rules empowered the government to order the removal of content deemed illegal under various laws, including those related to national security, public order and sexual offences.

The country has issued thousands of takedown orders in recent years, according to platform transparency reports.

(Reuters/NAN)