The Union government is about to send a notification of the last amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, a significant amendment of which is the release of the labelling requirements for AI-generated content. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will abandon the plan of requiring large fixed-size watermarks on the synthetically generated content, as per the officials involved in the issue.
In October 2025, draft amendments released had indicated that prominent labels or identifiers had to be embedded by intermediaries that provide tools to generate or alter AI-generated content. In case of visual material, the mark was to have occupied a minimum of 10 percent of the screen, whereas audio material must have contained a recognizable indication in the initial 10 percent of its length. Social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube had cautioned that such would lead to massive and permanently conspicuous watermarks or audio tags, and this would be counterproductive to the user experience.
The government has been made to abandon a strict 10%. Nevertheless, content will continue to be needed with the noticeable mark that it is artificial intelligence-created. One of the officials stated that should I view a video, it must be clear that it is created by AI, and this motivation is not obtrusive labelling but transparency.
The ruling is after the industry lobby groups, such as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which incorporates Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix, among others, intensely pressured the ruling to be dismissed. IndiaMAI claimed that the offer was too prescriptive and technically challenging to apply across devices and formats, and may interfere with customer experience. It also raised the issue of privacy, interoperability, and compliance-heavy loads, particularly for smaller companies.
The other provision that still raises concerns in the industry is Rule 4(1A), which would require giant social media platforms to seek user statements regarding the AI-generated content and put technical controls on the statements to ensure their validity. Only companies have indicated that it may be difficult to check such statements on a scale.
MeitY had given a deadline of November 13 as the deadline when its draft rules to be reviewed and thereafter.
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