Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000
Safe Harbour for Intermediaries
Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides the foundational "safe harbour" protection for intermediaries in India. Under this provision, an intermediary — defined broadly to include search engines, social media platforms, cloud providers, telecom networks, and online marketplaces — is not liable for any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by it, subject to certain conditions. Safe harbour protections are premised on the intermediary's role as a neutral conduit rather than a publisher or editor of content.
- Section 79 grants liability immunity for intermediaries who comply with prescribed conditions
- Conditions include: not initiating the transmission, not selecting the receiver, not modifying the content
- Intermediaries lose safe harbour if they have actual knowledge of unlawful content and fail to remove it promptly
- The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 operationalise Section 79 conditions
- Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs — platforms with 50 lakh+ registered users) have additional obligations: Grievance Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Officer; monthly compliance reports
● Tracked since February 10, 2026 · last seen August 08, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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