NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the central government to formulate guidelines on regulating social media content amid the ongoing controversy of airing explicit sexual references involving comedian Samay Raina and Ranveer Allahbadia.During the hearing, a bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said that the usage of filthy language must not be deemed as talent and a “very limited regulatory measure” must be imposed.”We don’t want any regulatory regime which leads to censorship…but it can’t be a free for all. See the quality of humor he has…humor is something the entire family can enjoy, nobody feels embarrassed. Using all filthy language is not talent,” Justice Kant said.Also read: ‘Maintain decency’: Supreme Court allows podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia to resume airing ‘The Ranveer Show'”Think what can be a very limited regulatory measure which must not lead to censorship…which must have some element of control…Something needs to be done. If somebody wants to watch something..What we propose to do…try to impress upon the union what can be done… and have a healthy debate on it with all the stakeholders,” Justice Kant said.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta agreed with the bench and said, “if you have to use vulgarity to make me laugh, then you are not a good comedian.”This comes after Allahbadia filed an application in the apex court and sought lifting of one part of the order which refrained him from airing his shows and says he has 280 employees and it is his livelihood.Earlier, the ministry of information and broadcasting has issued an advisory to OTT platforms urging stricter age-based classification of content and compliance with the Information Technology (IT) Rules 2021.The advisory outlined six key points aimed at online content publishers and self-regulatory bodies of OTT platforms, emphasising adherence to existing laws and ethical guidelines.This comes after controversy erupted over an episode of YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’ by Samay Raina, featuring podcaster and influencer, Ranveer Allahbadia, who made an “inappropriate” comment during his guest appearance.
Formulate guidelines on regulating social media content: SC tells Centre | India News
