OTT platforms are given freedom for creativity, not obscenity: Anurag Thakur

Abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated on the OTT platform, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur on Sunday said.

During a press conference in Nagpur, he spoke about increasing obscenity and abusive language on the OTT platform and expressed the government's seriousness on this issue.

"Abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated. The government is serious about the complaints of increasing abusive and obscene content on OTT platforms. If there is a need to make any changes in the rules regarding this, the ministry is willing to consider that. These platforms were given freedom for creativity, not obscenity. Whatever necessary action needs to be taken on this, the government will not back down from it," the minister said.

Speaking further, Thakur said, "The process so far is that the producer has to resolve the received complaints at the first level. 90 to 92 per cent of the complaints are resolved by them by making necessary changes. The next level of complaint resolution is at the level of their association, where most of the complaints are resolved.

At the last level it comes to the level of the government, where action is taken on the departmental committee level, according to the rules are in place. But somewhere complaints have started increasing in the last few days and the department is taking it very seriously. If there is a need to make a change we are willing to consider it seriously."

It has to be noted that the Delhi High court on March 7, upheld an order for registration of FIR against the TVF and its actor and also asked the government to take steps to check the language of the content of (Over The Top) OTT platforms.

Coming down heavily on the language used in TVF web series 'College Romance', the high court said the use of obscenities in the form of foul language degrades women so they may feel victims as the expletives and obscenities refer to women being objects of sex.

"This court is of the opinion that use of vulgar language including profanity and bad words in public domain and in social media platforms which are open to children of tender age needs to be taken seriously.

"The use of obscene words and foul language in social media platforms have to be regulated when it crosses a particular line, as it can be a true threat to impressionable minds and cannot receive constitutional protection of free speech," Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said in a 41-page judgement.

The judge said while in schools, offices etc., students and workers can be punished for using profane speech, the authorities also need to regulate "profanity which enters into the domain of indecent speech by a broadcast medium".

The high court's verdict came while upholding an order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) asking the Delhi Police to register an FIR against TVF, the show's director Simarpreet Singh and actor Apoorva Arora under the Information Technology Act.

It clarified that the direction to register FIR does not include a direction to arrest any of the accused or petitioner.

The court said the challenge faced by India, 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.

"This court draws the attention of the Ministry of Information and Technology to the situations which are fast emerging on a daily basis and to take steps for enforcing stricter application of its rules qua the intermediaries as notified in Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and make any laws or rules as deemed appropriate in its wisdom, in light of the observations made in this judgment," it said.

After watching a few episodes of the series, the court found excessive use of 'swear words', 'profane language' and 'vulgar expletives' were there and the judge had to watch the episodes with the aid of earphones, in the chamber, as the profanity of language was such that it could not have been heard without shocking or alarming the people around and keeping in mind the decorum of language maintained by a common prudent man.

"Most certainly, this court notes that this is not the language that nation's youth or otherwise citizens of this country use, and this language cannot be called the frequently spoken language used in our country," it said.