SC Issues Notice Over OTT Obscenity; Centre Hints at New Regulations

The Supreme Court examined a plea seeking regulation of obscene content on OTT and social media platforms, and called the issue a serious concern.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih issued notices to the Centre and platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, AltBalaji, Ullu, Mubi, X, Google, Meta, and Apple.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the petitioners, said the plea raised a genuine, non-adversarial concern, pointing to unrestricted circulation of such content on social media.

Justice Gavai urged Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to “do something… something legislative.”

Mehta said some content was so perverse it couldn’t be watched by two decent individuals together. While opposing censorship, he added that more regulation was being contemplated.

The Court noted that the petition raised important concerns about obscene and indecent content, and recorded Mehta’s submission on upcoming regulations.