The Centre today informed the Supreme Court that it will set up a specialised agency mechanism to block and curb sharing of sexual offence videos on social networking platforms in order to check cyber crimes.
A bench of justices M B Lokur and U U Lalit asked the Centre to specify the structure and functions of the agency or the institution sought to be created and whether it will work under CBI or the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh said even the budgetary allocation has been made for creating a specialised central institutional mechanism for blocking, stopping videos from being uploaded and circulations of such materials on social networking platforms.
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Some of the Internet majors like Google India, Microsoft India, Yahoo India and Facebook, who were issued notice by the apex court said it was not possible for them to auto-block the contents.
Lawyer Aparna Bhat, who has been assisting the court as amicus curiae, gave various suggestions to curb circulation of sexual offence videos and said such contents should be blocked once they are detected and a mechanism is needed to be created to stopping their uploading on such social sites and platforms.
She said a mechanism needs to be created where a constant monitoring is done and some keywords should be there to identify the content posted online.
The bench said that the keywords could also be in Hindi or any vernacular language which would help in identify the contents.
A lawyer suggested that when Facebook can be regulated and censored in China then it can be done in India as well and such objectionable contents can be regulated.
The bench which posted the matter for further hearing on February 21, asked the Centre and Internet majors to go through the suggestions given by the amicus and file a detailed response.
The apex court had on December 5, last year sought response from Internet majors Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook on a plea seeking curbs on sharing of sexual offence videos on social networking sites and steps to check cyber crimes.
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The Centre has told the apex court that the debate over making public the names of sexual offenders is on in India and abroad and whatever decision is taken in this regard will be implemented.
The court was hearing a letter sent to then Chief Justice of India H L Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, along with two rape videos in a pen drive.
It had taken suo motu note of the letter on the posting of these videos on WhatsApp and had asked CBI to launch a probe forthwith to nab the culprits.
CBI in its reply to the plea had said that "committing such abhorrent crimes, recording them and disseminating them across the world through Internet-enabled media, serves to titillate and indirectly embolden other males to also commit such heinous crimes. These not only add to the misery of existing victims but also endanger and threaten the safety of other innocent women and children".
The agency had said that difficulty with this particular class of cases involving sexual crimes against women that are recorded and then circulated through Internet-enabled media is that her trauma can continue almost endlessly until the sites are blocked and the perpetrators brought to justice.
The ministry's reply was sought after social activist Sunitha Krishnan had submitted that there should be a particular place where one could report the circulation of such rape videos and seek their blocking.
Krishnan, the co-founder of NGO Prajwala which is engaged in rescue and rehabilitation of victims of sex trafficking, said apart from the nine complaints which CBI was probing, she had another 90 cases but there was no single authority before whom she could lodge a complaint for blocking of such videos.
The apex court had earlier sought response of the Centre and the governments of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Delhi and Telangana.
The NGO's letter had also mooted the idea of maintaining a National Sex Offenders' Register which should contain details of persons convicted for offences like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults.
The NGO had also suggested that MHA should have a tie-up with YouTube and WhatsApp to ensure that such offensive videos are not uploaded and the culprits are punished as well.
