What counts as harassment, where to report, what platforms can do
TL;DR
- Harassment is defined by the conduct, not by how much of it you can absorb. The IT Rules already name the categories.
- Complain in writing to the platform's grievance officer and keep the date. That date starts a legal clock.
- 24 hours to acknowledge, 72 hours for most takedowns, 15 days to resolve. Intimate imagery or morphed impersonation gets its own 24-hour clock.
- No answer, or a bad one? You have 30 days to appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee. The whole process runs online.
Contents
The rule
Complain in writing, to the platform's named grievance officer, and keep the date. That date starts a clock the platform owes you an answer against. If no answer comes, or the wrong one does, you have 30 days to appeal to a government committee, online.
Why this rule exists
Harassment is defined by the conduct, not by how much of it you can absorb.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 already list the categories. Rule 3(1)(b) covers content that is obscene, or invasive of another's privacy including bodily privacy. It covers content that is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, harmful to a child, or impersonating another person (Source: MEITY). If what is happening to you sits in that list, it is not a personality clash. The law has already named it.
The Rules also attach times. Every platform must publish its grievance officer's name and contact details. That officer has 24 hours to acknowledge your complaint and 15 days to resolve it. Takedown requests in the list above get 72 hours. One category moves faster. If content exposes your private area, shows you in nudity or a sexual act, or impersonates you with morphed images, the platform gets 24 hours. It must take all reasonable and practicable measures to remove it or block access. No court order, and anyone can file on your behalf (Source: MEITY).
What happens if you don't follow it
Tapping the in-app report button leaves you nothing you can hold anyone to. No dated acknowledgement, no name, nothing to appeal from.
The Rules give you 30 days from the grievance officer's decision to appeal. Separately, the Grievance Appellate Committee says you can also appeal if the platform sends no response at all within 30 days of your complaint (Source: GAC). Nothing provides for a late appeal, so treat the date as hard.
Meanwhile the content stays up, and platforms delete it when they finally act, taking your evidence with it. Screenshot first.
Replying is the other failure mode. Argument is engagement, and engagement is what the account came for.
Quick reference
- Screenshot first: the post, the profile, the link, the timestamp.
- Complain in writing to the grievance officer, whose details the platform must publish. Note the date.
- 24 hours to acknowledge. 72 hours for takedowns. 15 days to resolve.
- Intimate imagery or morphed impersonation: 24 hours to act, no court order, anyone can file for you.
- No response, or a bad one: appeal at gac.gov.in within 30 days. Online.
- Criminal conduct, or a child involved: cybercrime.gov.in, which takes cyber bullying and stalking complaints and has a route for crimes against women and children. Money: call 1930 (Source: Ministry of Home Affairs).
- Do not reply to the account. Block, document, report.
Quick check
1. Someone has spent three weeks posting abuse at you from a burner account. You have tapped the in-app 'report' button eleven times and nothing has happened. What actually moves this forward?
Select an answer.
2. A morphed image of a friend, made to look like a nude photo, is circulating on a platform. She is being told she needs to file a police case and get a court order before anything can be taken down. Is that right?
Select an answer.