X, YouTube and Telegram asking them to remove pornographic and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) present on their platform.
In the notice sent by the ministry of electronics and information technology, all these platforms have been warned that non-compliance with the notice issued would lead to their safe harbour status being withdrawn.
The notices to X, YouTube and Telegram were sent a day after ET reached out to senior officials in the IT ministry on the issue and sought their response to the presence of pornographic and CSAM material on their platform.
“The IT rules under the IT Act lays down strict expectations from social media intermediaries that they should not allow criminal or harmful posts on their platforms. If they do not act swiftly, their safe harbour under section 79 of the IT Act would be withdrawn and consequences under the Indian law will follow,” the minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
Earlier this year on August 29, the IT ministry had issued an advisory to all social media intermediaries asking them to “address the concerns of CSAM contents in the form of short as well as long videos”.
The ministry has also said that in their response sent in September, some of the intermediaries had not apprised the government of the steps they had taken “ensuring non-availability of such content” on their