The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central government, Over The Top (OTT) – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Alt Balaji, Ullu, ALTT, X (formerly Twitter), Meta Inc, Google, Mubi, Apple, and the social media platforms on a public interest plea (PIL) seeking to regulate and prohibit the streaming of obscene contents.

Stating that the issue raised by the PIL petitioner is of “important concern”, a bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih sought response from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Alt Balaji, Ullu, ALTT, X (formerly Twitter), Meta Inc, Google, Mubi, Apple and others seeking the regulation of obscene content on OTT platforms and social media.

Advertisement

However, the bench clarified that the issue raised in the petition is a policy matter and falls in the domain of the Central government.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the PIL petitioners, highlighted the issue of content circulating on OTT and social media platforms without any regulation or checks. He appeared for the PIL petitioners, Uday Mahurkar, Sanjeev Newar, Sudeshna Bhattacharjya Mukherjee, Shatabdi Pande, and Svati Goyal, who approached the apex court.

Representing the Central government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the obscene content was present even in some regular programmes. Pointing to the depth of perversity in some of the programmes, Solicitor General Mehta said that some programmes are so perverted that even two respectable men cannot sit together and watch them.

However, Mehta said that there should not be censorship but some degree of regulation was necessary. “There is some regulation in place, some is in contemplation,” Mehta told the bench.

The bench in its order said, “This petition raises an important concern with regard to the display of various objectionable, obscene and indecent contents on OTT platforms and social media. The Solicitor General fairly states that the contents go to the extent of perversity. He submits that certain more regulations are in contemplation. Issue notice.”

The bench also said that the issue raised in the petition is a policy matter that is in the policy domain of the Central government.

The PIL petitioners have sought constitution of an authority/committee headed by retired top court judge, consisting of eminent experts in the field to oversee and certify for the publishing, streaming of movies/shows/web series on OTT Platforms and the social media on the lines of the CBFC until the appropriate legislature enacts a law for regulating such streaming.

The petition has sought direction to the central government “to take appropriate steps to prohibit the streaming of sexually explicit, pornographic, paedophilic, incestuous and other content of similar nature including nudity, X-rated scenes, etc. on OTT Platforms.

If left unchecked, PIL says that this unregulated spread of obscene material could have severe consequences on societal values, mental health and public safety. “The unchecked circulation of such material, including child pornography and softcore adult content, has contributed to a rising trend of crimes against women and children while negatively shaping the psychological development of young minds,” it said.

Seeking to lay down guidelines by constituting a National Content Control Authority to prohibit sexually perverted content on OTT and various social media platforms, the PIL petitioners have also sought direction to the Centre to stop access to the social media- X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., as well as OTT platforms, until they formulate a mechanism to ensure that all pornographic content is made inaccessible, especially to children and minors in India.