Need to make laws more strict to curb vulgarity on social media: Vaishnaw

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said there is a need to make existing laws more stringent to curb vulgar content on social media platforms.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, the Information and Broadcasting Minister said the Parliamentary Standing Committee should take up the issue and also called for a consensus to frame more strict laws in this regard.

Earlier, there were editorial checks and it was decided whether something was right or wrong, but those checks have ended. Today, social media is a platform for the freedom of press but it is uncontrolled and there is vulgar content, the minister said during the Question Hour.

There is a need to make existing laws more stringent to curb vulgar content on social media platforms, Vaishnaw said amid din in the House.

He was responding to questions by BJP member Arun Govil about existing mechanisms to check the illegal telecast of vulgar and sex-related content through social media platforms and whether the government proposes to make the existing laws more stringent keeping in view the fact that the said laws are "not much effective to stop misuse of these platforms".

The government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) under the Information Technology Act, 2000. It provides for a code of ethics for publishers of online curated content (OTT platforms) and that OTT platforms put in place adequate safeguards for restricting age-inappropriate content for children.

In a written reply, Vaishnaw said the ministry blocked 18 OTT platforms for publishing obscene and vulgar content.

So far as the content on intermediary platforms like YouTube and Facebook is concerned, IT Rules, 2021 cast certain obligations on such platforms.

These platforms need to make reasonable efforts by themselves and to cause the user of their computer resource to not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, etc. knowingly and intentionally any information which is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another's privacy, including bodily privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that is harmful to child, he said.