Social media content guidelines in final stage: Centre tells SC

New Delhi, Nov 27 The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is in the final stages of preparing a regulatory framework to address explicit and harmful content on social media platforms.

Seeking an additional four weeks, the Union government apprised a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the proposed guidelines would soon be placed in the public domain to invite suggestions from citizens, experts, and other stakeholders.

The CJI Kant-led Bench was hearing a clutch of petitions filed by YouTubers Ranveer Allahbadia, Ashish Chanchlani, and others facing several FIRs over allegedly obscene and offensive remarks made during the controversial show "India's Got Latent".

During the hearing, the Apex Court stressed that existing provisions may require amendments to ensure meaningful checks on online content.

At this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the second-highest law officer of the Centre, said: "I have spoken to the concerned Minister. Before dealing with obscenity, we must first deal with wrongful acts. Anyone can create a YouTube channel, say anything under the garb of free speech, and the law is helpless. That cannot continue."

The Supreme Court suggested the Centre consider the feasibility of establishing an autonomous regulatory body to monitor online content.

"If everything is allowed to be spoken or shown without accountability, what will be the consequence?" the CJI Kant-led Bench remarked.

Further, it referred to the intrusive nature of online platforms and said: "Obscenity can appear in books or paintings, and those can be restricted. But when you switch on your phone, and something appears that you do not want to see – and it is forcibly pushed at you - what is the remedy?"

The Supreme Court also took strong exception to derogatory or insensitive depictions of disabled persons, urging the government to consider a stringent penal mechanism, akin to the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, to deter insults and mockery aimed at persons with disabilities.

"We were told that highly sensitive issues are being mocked. Why shouldn't there be a strict law to protect disabled individuals from such humiliation?" the CJI Kant-led Bench asked.

The latest developments come against the backdrop of earlier hearings, where the Supreme Court reprimanded several stand-up comedians, including Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar, and Nishant Tanwar, for making insensitive jokes about an infant suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

In August this year, the Apex Court had directed Raina and four others to issue public apologies on social media after taking note of their offensive remarks about a two-month-old baby needing a Rs 16 crore life-saving injection.

While hearing the petition filed by Cure SMA Foundation of India, the Supreme Court indicated its intention to frame guidelines regulating obscene or harmful content on social media and stressed that freedom of speech under Article 19 cannot override the right to dignity enshrined in Article 21.

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