Centre must do something to regulate obscene content on OTT platforms: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday said the Centre must 'do something legislative' to regulate obscene content on OTT platforms and social media. In response, the Centre told the court that some more regulations are in contemplation.

 

The court, besides the Centre, also sought a response from OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, AltBalaji, Ullu Digital, Mubi, and social media platforms X Corp, Google, Meta Inc and Apple. This was on the public interest litigation seeking regulation of obscene content on OTT platforms and social media.

 

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih observed that the plea raised an issue of 'important concern' and tagged it with other similar pending petitions. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the petitioners, told the court the content on social media is without any form of regulation or checks.

 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that he also shared some of the concerns raised by the petitioners after going through the list of programmes submitted by them.

 

While he agreed that there should be some degree of regulation, he said that there should not be censorship.

 

"There is some regulation in place, some is in contemplation," SG Mehta said.