NEW DELHI: Expressing “serious concern” over the broadcast of objectionable and obscene content on OTT and social media platforms, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and several platforms, observing that some form of regulation was necessary while hearing a plea seeking curbs on such content.A two-judge bench led by Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said, “We issue notice to respondents. Let Netflix etc., be also here, they also have social responsibility.” The court noted that it was for the Executive and Legislature to introduce measures to regulate indecent content online.Finding merit in the PIL, the top court on Monday issued notice to Centre, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Ullu, ALTT, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and others and sought their detailed respective repliesSolicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that some regulations were already in place and more were being contemplated. He remarked that some content was so perverse that “two respectable men can’t sit together and watch,” pointing out the need for stronger checks despite existing 18+ age warnings.Mahurkar, in his plea, claimed there were pages or profiles on social media sites that were disseminating pornographic materials without any filter, and various OTT platforms were streaming content that also has potential elements of child pornography.
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