The proposed amendments to India’s Information Technology Rules, 2021, will formally place Community Feedback – the user-generated fact-checking tool on
An official at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), speaking on condition of anonymity, said that when a community note begins to appear to deal with news, politics or public policy, it may come under scrutiny within the expanded framework. Asked whether a memo correcting a minister’s claim or adding context to a political issue fell into this category, the official said: “Depends on the facts in each case. But it is likely to be the case.”
On March 30, Meity published amendments to the IT rules to bring more content online under Part Three of the rules, which are overseen by the MIB. A key part of this is bringing content posted by users on social media – including influencers and even everyday users who reshare content – within the scope of the MIB. The scope of MIB is currently limited to publishers of news and curated online content. The proposed expansion would formalize the Ministry’s jurisdiction over a category of content it does not currently regulate.
Earlier this year, several posts by BJP leaders and ministers on X brought community feedback flagged by the government to the platform, according to people familiar with the matter at the company.
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These positions included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnau. Community feedback within some specific posts has since been removed from the platform.
A community note under a February 14 video of Modi speaking at a business summit — which alleged that the government’s policies on social justice for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes violate Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution — was removed from the platform. They appeared and disappeared intermittently under the BJP’s national account post, citing Home Minister Amit Shah on deportation of infiltrators, which cited the government’s record on the issue in Assam.
Not all comments on official posts have been removed. A community note under a January 28 post by President Draupadi Murmu — explaining that as head of state she is constitutionally bound to serve all citizens, not a particular constituency — remains visible on the platform. In her original post, the President stated that the government was working for marginalized and vulnerable communities.
If the government determines that the note is illegal under the expanded framework, the process will follow the standard path: sending a takedown or blocking directive to the platform, requiring the removal or disabling of access within a specified period of time.
The issue involves several questions: One concerns accountability, as a community note is formed collectively by multiple contributors rather than a single author. “This should be decided in court based on who all contributed. If X had a role in the organisation, they also bear responsibility,” the Meity official said. Both users who contributed a note and the platform could face scrutiny, depending on the case.
The other is whether MIB can regulate it. Community Feedback is entirely user generated and hosted on social media platforms. Industry and civil society groups attending the consultation pushed back on the proposed changes this week, with mediators questioning their inclusion under provisions under the MIB guidance.
The government told stakeholders that the inclusion of intermediaries is to ensure that they act as an access point to this content and can help identify users.
Policy experts warn that the expansion is weak in scope. “The proposed expansion of Part III of the IT Rules appears broad enough to include even intermediary-hosted and community-driven content formats akin to current affairs and news,” said Dhruv Garg, partner at the Indian Governance and Policy Project (IGAP). “This may raise questions about spaces like Wikipedia entries or community feedback for X, where content is created collectively and iteratively shaped rather than controlled by any single user or the platform itself.”
This reading directly contradicts the government’s characterization.
IT Minister S Krishnan, speaking to the press on Tuesday after consultations with stakeholders in the ministry, described the proposed changes as largely procedural. He said: “These amendments in no way give us broader powers… They are merely clarifications and incidental in nature.”
Garg said the ministry needed to clarify its intention. “It will be important for the Department to clarify the intended scope in the final rule, so that community-managed collaborative information systems are not inadvertently brought into a framework intended for publishers.”
X expanded Community Feedback to India in April 2024, allowing users from India to join as contributors. Only notes rated as helpful by people from diverse viewpoints appear within posts; X says it doesn’t edit notes unless they violate the platform’s rules. It is possible to test this position within the framework of the proposed framework.
The deadline for submitting public and stakeholder comments on the proposed changes was April 14; This deadline is expected to be extended by two weeks following pressure from industry and other stakeholders, HT has learned.
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