Your Instagram Video Could Be Removed in Just 2 Hours!

— Surya Prakash Josyula

Imagine you post a video on Instagram. Someone reports it for some reason. Earlier, the platform had more time to review the complaint. Now, in some cases, it may have to decide within just two hours whether the video should stay or be removed.

India has tightened its IT Rules, bringing stricter timelines for social media platforms. If there is a complaint about sensitive content such as nudity, morphing or impersonation, platforms must take action within two hours. If the government or a court orders the removal of illegal content, it must be removed within three hours.

Earlier, platforms had up to 24 hours for some such complaints. Now, the time has been cut sharply.

Why is the government doing this so quickly?

The biggest reason is AI and deepfakes.

Today, it is easy to put one person’s face on another person’s video, create an AI voice that sounds like someone else, or make a fake video showing something that never really happened.

Once such a video goes online, it can reach millions of people before anyone even finds out whether it is real or fake.

That is why the government wants platforms to follow a simple approach:

Don’t wait for the damage to happen. Detect it and act quickly.

Now AI will also watch your content

The new rules also require AI-generated content to carry clear labels and information that can help identify it.

Large social media platforms with more than 5 million users in India will also have to use AI-based tools to detect certain highly harmful content, including material related to sexual abuse and content similar to material that has already been removed.

So, when you post something online, it may not be reviewed only by humans.

AI systems may also examine it.

If the system believes the content is harmful, the platform may have to take quick action.

But this raises another important question.

What if AI gets it wrong?

How do you decide in just two hours whether a video is real or a deepfake?

What if a genuine video is wrongly identified as fake?

What if a complaint is made against a video and the platform removes it too quickly without properly checking it?

This is where the criticism begins.

Opposition leaders have argued that the new rules could also be used to remove content that criticises the government.

The government, however, says the main purpose is to tackle deepfakes, illegal content and online abuse.

The bigger change is this

Until now, social media companies mainly provided a platform for people to post and share content.

Now, they have another responsibility.

They have to decide very quickly:

Should this content stay or should it go?

So, this is not simply a story about reducing a deadline from 24 hours to two hours.

In the age of AI and deepfakes, social media platforms are slowly changing from places that simply show content into powerful gatekeepers that decide what stays online and what disappears.