GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday, April 28 to examine a petition seeking the regulation of obscene content on OTT platforms and social media, noting that the matter raised significant concerns. The Union Government informed the Court that additional regulations are currently under consideration.
ALSO READ: Assam Govt Seeks Centre's Direction On Pakistani Woman's Long-Term Visa Plea
A bench consisting of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih stated that the issue raised in the Public Interest Litigation was one of “great concern,” issuing a notice to the Union Government as well as to several major OTT platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, AltBalaji, Ullu Digital, Mubi, and social media giants such as X Corp, Google, Meta Inc, and Apple. Justice Gavai remarked, "Let platforms like Netflix be here too; they too have social responsibility."
The Court consolidated this petition with other similar cases that are still pending. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the petitioners, explained that the matter was not an "adversarial litigation" but highlighted a "genuine concern." He pointed out the lack of regulation and checks on the content circulating on social media platforms. At this point, Justice Gavai sought the position of the Union Government, urging Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take action, saying, "Do something... something legislative."
Solicitor General Mehta acknowledged some of the concerns raised by the petitioners after reviewing the list of programmes they had submitted. He stated that even regular programmes contained obscene content, and some were so "perverse" that they would make it difficult for two respectable individuals to watch them together. While agreeing that censorship should be avoided, Mehta expressed support for some degree of regulation. "There are existing regulations, and more are being considered," he stated.
The bench also highlighted the importance of the petition, which focuses on the display of objectionable, obscene, and indecent content on OTT platforms and social media. The Solicitor General candidly acknowledged that the content could at times be perverse, but confirmed that additional regulations were under consideration.
The petition was led by journalist and former Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, with Sanjeew Newar, Sudeshna Bhattacharjya Mukherjee, Shatabdi Pande, and Svati Goyal joining as co-petitioners.
The issue of regulating obscene content had previously been raised by the Supreme Court in the context of the Ranveer Allahabadia case, where the Union Government was urged to consider imposing regulations on OTT platforms and social media.