Section 79 is a crucial provision within the Information Technology Act, 2000, which establishes the "safe harbour" doctrine for internet intermediaries in India. The provision's origin lies in the need to protect platforms like social media sites, search engines, and e-commerce portals from legal liability for content posted by their users, as they are considered mere facilitators, not publishers.
The core mechanism is that an intermediary is not liable for third-party information, data, or communication links hosted on its platform, provided it meets certain conditions. These conditions, outlined in Section 79(2), require the intermediary not to initiate the transmission, select the receiver, or modify the information. However, this immunity is conditional and is lost under Section 79(3) the moment the intermediary receives "actual knowledge" of unlawful content and fails to "expeditiously remove or disable access to it."
This provision is closely connected to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which are subordinate legislation that define due diligence obligations and specify that "actual knowledge" can arise from a user complaint or a government/court direction. The safe harbour concept has been significantly altered by the IT Amendment Rules, 2025 (notified on October 22, 2025), which broadened intermediary accountability and introduced stricter requirements, such as a 24-hour takedown mandate for certain content, effectively weakening the protection. The concept is also linked to the upcoming Digital India Act.
For context, the term "Section 79" also refers to a general exception in criminal law: Section 79 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which states that an act is not an offence if done by a person who is justified by law or mistakenly believes, in good faith, that they are justified by law (mistake of fact, not law). This provision is now covered under Section 79 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.