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| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Centre has assured the Delhi High Court that it will incorporate necessary rules and regulations in its future policies to regulate social media platforms and intermediaries for making them safer from the use of vulgar language, including profanity, bad words, etc.
In the compliance report filed before the court, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that as “part of its regular exercise on policymaking for the techno-legal ecosystem, it gives due consideration to the observations of this honourable court in its judgment to regulate the social media platforms/intermediaries for making it safer from the use of vulgar languages”.
The High Court had earlier underlined the need for framing rules and guidelines to regulate the content on social media and OTT platforms. It had underscored the need for taking seriously the use of vulgar language in public domain and on social media platforms which are open to children of tender age.
On March 6, 2023, the court had observed, “The challenge faced by our country, as faced by many other countries, for enacting appropriate law, guidelines and rules to regulate the content on social media and on OTT platforms needs urgent attention”.
Use of profanity
“The use of profanity is also a moral issue and the society has to deal with it by its own means too. However, when the content is shown through social media, the sheer enormous power of electronic media and its reach to people of all ages will certainly invite attention of the court, law enforcement and law making authorities to regulate it,” the High Court had said.
The court’s March 6 verdict had come while upholding an order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate asking the Delhi police to register an FIR against TVF, the show’s director Simarpreet Singh, and actor Apoorva Arora under the Information Technology Act.
The High Court had come down heavily on the language used in web series ‘College Romance’, which was owned by TVF, saying, “One cannot lean in favour of unrestricted, unfettered freedom of profane, indecent and obscene speech and expression by way of web series without classification of the same”.
The court had then asked the Ministry to be mindful “to the situations which are fast emerging on a daily basis and to take steps for enforcing stricter application of its rules”.
On August 17, the Ministry assured that the concerns of the court expressed through the March 6 judgment will be incorporated in the future rules and regulations. Considering the submission of the Ministry, the court disposed of the matter.