A morphed photograph, a cloned voice on a call, a video that puts your face on someone else's body — these are not new offences, but the rules that force a platform to act on them were rewritten this year, and the timetable is now much shorter.
What changed on 20 February 2026
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on 10 February 2026, and they came into force on 20 February 2026. Two changes matter to somebody who has been targeted.
- The window for a platform to remove content after a lawful order fell from thirty-six hours to three hours.
- The rules now speak expressly of synthetically generated information — AI-made or AI-altered images, audio and video — rather than leaving it to be argued under general obscenity or impersonation provisions.
- Platforms are expected to take reasonable steps against content that impersonates a real person, misleads, or harms children, and to report relevant offences to the authorities.
Do these things today
- Preserve the material before it disappears. Screen-record the post, the profile, and the URL. A deleted post that you cannot produce is a post that did not exist.
- Note the exact URL and the account handle. "On Instagram somewhere" is not actionable.
- Report it in the app first. The platform's own grievance route creates a ticket reference, and that reference is useful later.
- File on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, or call 1930. Keep the acknowledgement number.
- If money has moved as well, treat that as a separate and more urgent problem — a transfer can sometimes be held while it is still sitting in the receiving account.
You can complain from Jodhpur even if the offender is elsewhere
Cyber offences are rarely committed where the victim lives, and you are not required to travel to where the accused sits. A complaint can be registered at the station with jurisdiction over where you are, and transferred onward. If a station tells you the matter belongs to another district and refuses to write anything down, that refusal is itself something a lawyer can act on.
What a lawyer actually adds here
Three things. Getting the complaint drafted so it names the provisions and the material rather than describing a feeling. Getting a written order that the platform is obliged to act on within its three hours, rather than a request it can queue. And pursuing the account behind it, which is a different exercise from getting the post taken down — removal protects your reputation, identification is what leads anywhere.
What this does not fix
Content already downloaded and re-shared privately cannot be recalled. Nor does a takedown by itself compensate you. Where the harm is reputational and continuing, the civil route runs alongside the criminal one, and the two are decided on different material.
What this stands on
Every statement above rests on one of the provisions below. Section numbers are the 2023 codes — the BNS, BNSS and BSA replaced the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act from 1 July 2024.
- IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026
- Notified 10 February 2026, in force 20 February 2026; three-hour removal window and synthetically generated information
- IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021, Rule 3(1)(d)
- Removal on receipt of a lawful order
- Information Technology Act, 2000, ss. 66C, 66D, 66E, 67, 79
- Identity theft, cheating by personation, privacy, obscene material, and the safe-harbour that non-compliance forfeits
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
- Cheating, forgery, defamation and criminal intimidation as they now stand
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal · helpline 1930
- Where a complaint is filed and the acknowledgement obtained
Awaiting verification by Rajender Prajapat before publication. This is general information about the law, not advice on your matter.