Overview
- Press organisations led by the Press Club of India, which passed a joint resolution on Saturday, called for the draft IT Amendment Rules 2026 to be withdrawn in full.
- The groups urged the government to roll back the February 2026 change that cut platforms’ time to remove flagged content from 36 hours to three hours.
- The resolution pressed for strict adherence to Supreme Court‑backed safeguards under Section 69A, including written, reasoned blocking orders, and asked the Centre to end delegated blocking powers to agencies.
- The bodies sought the withdrawal of Rule 16 of the 2009 IT Rules and an immediate halt to the Sahyog portal, which they say enables unaccountable blocking and lacks clear legal basis.
- An Indian Express explainer says the draft would place user‑generated news under a tighter framework, empower a government committee to demand apologies or takedowns, and require tools to detect and label synthetically generated information, raising fears of self‑censorship and harm to the creator economy while the government reviews feedback.