India, Dec. 30 -- The Centre has warned social media companies and other online intermediaries of strict legal consequences if they fail to act against obscene, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic and other forms of unlawful content hosted on their platforms.

In an advisory issued on December 29, 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directed platforms to review and strengthen their compliance and due diligence frameworks immediately.

The ministry reminded intermediaries that under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, they are required to observe due diligence as a condition for availing exemption from liability for third-party content uploaded or shared on their platforms.

MeitY noted that it has ...