India, Nov. 11 -- The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Tuesday released a new Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) mandating intermediaries, including social media platforms, to remove or disable access to non-consensual intimate images (NCII) within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

The SoP is aimed at curbing the spread of such content online. It lays out responsibilities for platforms and follows a Madras high court direction in October while hearing the plea of a woman lawyer whose private images repeatedly surfaced on the internet.

The SoP requires intermediaries to act on complaints from an individual, authorised representative, or government agency and to acknowledge the removal action to the complaina...