Trouble For TVFPlay: Delhi HC Calls For Regulating Vulgar Content On OTT Platforms

In what could be a fresh trouble for over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms, the Delhi High Court on Monday (March 6) reportedly said that there is a need to regulate content with vulgar language on such platforms.

While hearing a case filed with regards to the webseries ‘College Romance’, being streamed on SonyLiv, YouTube and TVFPlay, the HC said that the language used in the show is ‘obscene and vulgar’. The court also upheld that the show’s director Simarpreet Singh and actor Apoorva Arora are liable to face action under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Noting that the bench had to watch the episodes via earphones, the HC was quoted by LiveLaw as saying that the ‘profanity of the language’ cannot have been heard without ‘shocking or alarming the people around’.

The court also directed the Ministry of Information and Technology to take steps to enforce stricter implementation of the IT Rules and also undertake steps to make necessary laws to deal with such issues.

While the Delhi HC upheld the registration of an FIR under the IT Act against TVFPlay, Singh and Arora, it also stated that the direction does not entail arrests of the accused persons. 

The HC also pulled up SonyLiv, YouTube and TVFPlay for violating the IT Rules by not giving any warning about excessive use of expletives and no age classification with regards to the webseries.

“The web series was available to every age group. Therefore, this web series also stood covered under violation of the Rules of 2021,” the court added.

The Fine Print

Describing its rationale behind the order, the HC noted that the concept of morality differs in every country. It also remarked that the issue of use of vulgar language on social media platforms that are open to ‘children of tender age’ needs to be taken seriously.

“In Indian society, even today, swear words are not spoken in the presence of the elderly, at religious places, or in front of women or children…Though such web series may portray a certain part of society, the popular culture of this country still identifies with and adopts point of view of civil language,” Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who was hearing the case, was quoted as saying.

Noting that even though the freedom to watch any show is with an individual, the Delhi HC remarked that ‘foul language’ used on the webseries cannot ‘take shelter under the argument of the new generation using such language.’

In another major observation, the court also said that the use of ‘obscene words and foul language’ on social media platforms needs to be regulated when it ‘crosses a certain line’. It also said that such words can be a ‘true threat to impressionable minds’ and cannot be guaranteed protection under free speech norms. 

The development comes four years after an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate ordered to file an FIR in the matter in 2019. Subsequently in 2020, an additional sessions judge also directed the concerned authorities to register an FIR under the relevant sections of the IT Act. Afterwards, the creator of the show, The Viral Fever, challenged the matter before the Delhi HC.

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