Social media regulation in India has largely focused on content, not design. Critically examine the case for regulating 'addictive design features' like infinite scroll and autoplay, and the constitutional issues involved.

India's intermediary framework polices what platforms carry, not how they are built. The Delhi High Court's September 2026 query to the Centre on a policy for addiction-causing design features [1] reopens this gap — a case that is strong on harm, but genuinely hard on definition.

The case for regulating design

• Regulatory gap: IT Rules, 2021 impose due diligence on content and grievance redress for SMIs/SSMIs [2]; no provision addresses engagement-maximising architecture — infinite scroll, autoplay, notification loops.
• Design law exists, but only for the wallet: CCPA's Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 name 13 practices — false urgency, subscription trap, nagging — all built around deception in a sale [3]. Infinite scroll deceives no one; it costs time, not money, and so escapes.
• Adults uncovered: the DPDP Act, 2023 bars processing detrimental to a child's well-being and mandates verifiable parental consent [4], operationalised by DPDP Rules, 2025 (14 November 2025) with an 18-month phased rollout [5] — but it regulates data, not feed design, and leaves adults wholly outside.

The case against, and enforcement limits

• No workable definition: autoplay aids visually impaired users; ranked feeds are the product itself. A ban approaches restricting Article 19(1)(g) trade freedom.
• India's design enforcement runs on self-audit — 26 platforms self-declared compliance after the 2025 CCPA advisory [6]. A checkout page is inspectable; a feed is generated afresh per user, leaving nothing fixed to audit.

Constitutional balance: Article 21's right to health, including mental health, must be weighed against Article 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g), with restrictions tested for proportionality.

The sharper path is not prohibition but the CCPA's own method — name specific features and regulate defaults: autoplay off, notifications muted for minors, with a design-risk duty added to SSMI obligations and algorithmic access for auditors. An expert committee grounded in Indian screen-time and adolescent health data can supply that evidence base, letting regulation protect well-being without silencing the platform.