The Supreme Court of India upheld the necessity of a "neutral, independent and autonomous" body to regulate content published on online media on Thursday, 27 November. The concern was raised during the hearing of the petition filed by Ranveer Allahabadia and others challenging the FIRs that were filed against the obscene content found in Samay Raina's controversial show 'India's Got Latent'.
The Apex Court also criticised the role of the "self-regulation" model that has been followed on the online platforms by online content creators. Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered Samay Raina and 4 other comedians to publish an apology on their YouTube channels for making fun of sensitive matters like disability.
Freedom of speech and its limit
The hearing took place before the Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. The CJI exclaimed, "So I create my own channel, I am not accountable to anyone...somebody has to be accountable!" while talking about the depth of the matter and how user-generated content is being published every day without any oversight.
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"Freedom of speech is an invaluable right but it cannot lead to perversity," SG. "Right to speech has to be respected, suppose there is a programme, if it has adult content, so some warning in advance must be there," said CJI Chandra Kant.
According to a LiveLaw report, R Venkataramani, Attorney General for India, and Solicitor General for India Tushar Mehta informed the bench of new guidelines proposed by the Union Government, currently in the consultation process.
The CJI highlighted that, "Self styled bodies will not help..some neutral autonomous bodies which are free from the influence of those who exploit all of this and the state also is needed as a regulatory measure."
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During the hearing, the bench pointed out that the disclaimers are not enough and mentioned the need to have some sort of method to verify the age of the viewers beforehand.
On that day, the Bench was addressing three cases, two of them filed by Ranveer Allahabadia and Ashish Chanchlani, one filed by M/s SMA Cure Foundation, the Live Law report noted.
