On 17th August, Delhi High Court said in its order said that the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) stated in a compliance report submitted on 12th April 2023 in response to the judgment passed by the Delhi High Court on 6th March 2023 that the Ministry is working on bringing rules to moderate language on social media platforms.
In its compliance report, the government stated that creating rules to moderate vulgar language, including bad words and profanity, is a policy decision. However, the ministry acknowledged the concerns raised by the Delhi High Court in its March 2023 judgment on the same matter. These concerns will be taken into account while creating rules and regulations for social media platforms and intermediaries to control the use of vulgar language. The government informed the court that it is already in the process of creating these rules as part of its regular policy-making exercise.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that the court has been “assured that the concerns of this Court expressed through the said judgment will be incorporated in the future rules and regulations which will be shortly undertaken.”
The matter related to the language used in the web series, the ‘College Romance.’
The March judgment by the Delhi High Court regarding the web series College Romance was passed over the vulgar language. In his judgment, Justice Sharma criticised the use of vulgar language in the web series and said it was “obscene, profane and vulgar which will deprave and corrupt the minds of young people”.
The court added, “The challenge faced by our country, as faced by many other countries, for enacting appropriate law, guidelines and rules to regulate the content on social media and on OTT platforms needs urgent attention.”
The Bench had refused to quash the FIR filed against the actors and makers of the web series. It has directed the Ministry to take steps to enforce the strict application of IT Rules 2021. The govt was asked to make laws or rules, whatever was deemed fit, considering the observations made by the Delhi High Court in the matter.