By THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA| Accountability Elevated: Only Senior Officers to Issue Social Media Take Down Orders. In a major policy shift aimed at enhancing accountability and transparency in the digital ecosystem, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced that only senior officials — Joint Secretaries or above, and in law enforcement, officers at the rank of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) or higher — will be authorized to issue content take down notices under Section 79 (3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. The new rule will come into effect from November 15.

Earlier, junior officers, including sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors in state police departments, could issue such notices, often leading to inconsistencies and misuse. The revised framework, brought through amendments to Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, replaces this system with a more accountable and hierarchical mechanism.

Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said the change aims to ensure greater responsibility in digital governance. “The change we have brought here raises the level of accountability in the government,” he remarked.

In cases where a Joint Secretary is not appointed, a Director or an officer of equivalent rank may serve as the authorized signatory. The government has also emphasized that all take down notices must explicitly specify the legal provisions, the nature of the unlawful act, and the precise URLs or electronic identifiers of the content in question.

Non-compliance with such notices could result in the intermediary or platform losing its “safe harbour” protection under the IT Act, which currently shields them from liability for user-generated content.

Additionally, the ministry has proposed amendments to tackle the growing threat of deepfakes and has instituted a periodic review mechanism led by an officer not below the rank of Secretary — such as a Home Secretary or IT Secretary — to oversee the process.

This landmark move signifies the government’s intention to bring greater clarity, oversight, and fairness to the enforcement of digital content regulations in India’s fast-evolving online landscape.