Centre Tightens Cyber Rules To Curb Deepfakes, Online Abuse
IT Rules amended to protect women and children from AI-driven and online crimes
Nellore: The Centre has strengthened India's regulatory framework to tackle cyberbullying, online harassment, impersonation and AI-generated deepfakes, with special emphasis on protecting women and children.
Replying to a Lok Sabha question by Nellore MP Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr L. Murugan said the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provide the legal framework to deal with unlawful and harmful online content.
He said the IT Rules were amended on February 10, 2026, to address risks arising from synthetically generated information, including deepfakes and other AI-generated content. Social media platforms are required to take reasonable technical measures to curb unlawful AI-generated content that is obscene, misleading, impersonates individuals or harms children.
Reddy had sought to know whether the Centre proposed a dedicated law or specific rules to address cyberbullying, online stalking, impersonation, doxxing and trolling, particularly against women and children.
The Centre said victims can report cyber offences through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), which also allows anonymous reporting of certain crimes against women and children. A 'Report and Check Suspect' facility enables citizens to report suspicious websites, phone numbers, WhatsApp and Telegram accounts, email IDs, deepfakes and social media URLs.
The government said it has released `132.93 crore to states and Union Territories under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children scheme. Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been established in 33 states and Union Territories, while more than 24,600 law enforcement personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been trained.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has also provided cyber hygiene training to more than two lakh NCC, NSS and NYKS volunteers across the country.
