To stop pornography on social media, the central government is working on bringing the Digital India Bill in place of the existing IT Act. The new law will have provisions to regulate YouTubers, digital platforms, and social media users.
The Center has been working on the Digital India Bill for about 15 months. Laws with specific provisions will be made for different sectors. For example, separate provisions will be kept for telecommunications, information technology, and information and broadcasting-related subjects. There should also be a provision for the governance of artificial intelligence in this.
Due to the controversy of social media influencer Ranveer Allahabadia, the government is returning to the Digital India Bill. However, it has decided to keep AI governance separate from it. A completely different regulation is needed for this.
The immediate obligation before the government is to give a satisfactory answer to the Supreme Court as to what is being done to remove the flaws of the IT Act. The Parliamentary Committee on IT matters has also sought answers from the government to curb obscene content.
The IT Act was made in the year 2000, then there were 60 lakh net users, now 90 crores
The IT Act, of 2000 is outdated. When it was made, there were up to 60 lakh internet users in the country. Now there are more than 90 crores. The Parliamentary Committee had recently asked the government on obscene and vulgar content, and what are the provisions regarding such content in the IT Act. The Supreme Court has also called the Attorney General and Solicitor General on the same issue for the next hearing.
Government guidelines regarding content
The Government of India made The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules in 2021. It was updated on 6 April 2023. The 30-page guidelines state the rules for social media, films, and web series.
Page number 28 contains general guidelines for films, web series, and entertainment programs. In this, it is necessary to decide the category based on the target audience. It is also necessary to warn what content you are showing.
According to the guidelines, Grievance Officers will have to be appointed on OTT and social media platforms. The content should be according to the law. It should not contain sex, should not be anti-national, and should not harm children and women.
There are two types of rules to monitor this…
First: It should be self-regulatory. This means the person uploading the content will take care of the government guidelines. For this, social media platforms, OTT, and mobile apps will take care of them themselves. They will check whether any content is wrong or not. There should not be child pornography. They will also see what level of sexual content is there and what kind of language is there.
Second: If anyone has an objection to the content, he can complain. For this, there will be a system to complain on the platform, website, and app publishing the content. It will have the name, phone number, and email ID of the Grievance Officer. Any person can complain about it.
The complaint officer will register the complaint within 24 hours. The complainant will have to give an acknowledgment. It will have to be resolved within 15 days from the date of complaint. If the content needs to be removed, it will have to be removed. If the complaint is not heard, you can also complain on the website of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Celebrities trapped in obscene content case
Ranveer Allahabadia and Samay Raina: Ranveer Allahabadia was accused of making obscene comments about parents in Samay Raina’s show ‘India’s Got Latent’. After this, FIRs were registered against him in many places including Maharashtra, and Assam. A case is also registered against Samay Raina and Apoorva Makhija in the case. Currently, the matter is in the Supreme Court.
Raj Kundra: On July 19, 2021, Mumbai Police arrested actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra on charges of making porn films and distributing them through a website application. Mumbai Police said that the Crime Branch had registered a case in February 2021. There is sufficient evidence of Raj Kundra’s involvement in this case.
12 accused including Kundra were arrested in this case. The police told the court that ‘Raj Kundra was dealing in pornographic videos through his app Hotshot.’
Ekta Kapoor: On October 22, a case was registered against filmmaker Ekta Kapoor and her mother Shobha Kapoor under the POCSO Act in Borivali, Mumbai. They were accused of showing pornographic content related to minors in the web series ‘Gandi Baat’ of the OTT platform ‘Alt Balaji’. This series was shown between February and April 2021.
Ekta Kapoor is the founder of Alt Balaji. However, then her company Alt Digital Media Entertainment Limited said that the company fully complies with all the laws.
Videos of banned apps are available on Telegram
On March 12, 2024, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting blocked 18 OTT platforms showing pornographic content. Apart from these, 19 websites, 10 apps, and 57 social media accounts related to them were also closed. The names of all 18 OTT platforms were also given in the press note of the ministry. It was written in the press note that now they cannot be accessed anywhere in India.
