Government Tells Global Tech Platforms to Follow Constitution After Tougher Content Rules

A week after New Delhi tightened its content-takedown rules, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said Tuesday that big tech platforms such as Google’s YouTube, Meta, X and Netflix must operate within the country’t constitutional framework.

His comments came on the sidelines of an artificial intelligence summit in Delhi, where top executives from global AI giants will be gathered with several world leaders this week.

The minister said in a briefing at the India AI Impact Summit that “it’s very important for the multinationals to understand the cultural context of the country where they are working.”

The government said last week that “social media companies will have to remove illegal content within three hours of being notified, tightening an earlier 36-hour timeline,” in what could be a compliance challenge for Meta, YouTube and X.

The IT minister said ‘We have a dialogue with the industry about this issue has already been started, and there is much more regulation on deepfakes.

International pressure has been mounting on social media companies to police content more aggressively, with governments from Brussels to Brasilia demanding faster takedowns and greater accountability.

Spain ordered on Tuesday that prosecutors investigate social media sites X, Meta and TikTok over allegations of AI-generated child sexual abuse material as European regulators intensify scrutiny of big tech over harmful and illegal content.

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