Hindu Daily Digest - Editor's Pick: Over the top

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

In a case where the government’s new rules to regulate digital media were not actually the subject matter before it, the Supreme Court on Friday weighed in on the matter with regard to OTT (over-the-top) platforms and said the guidelines ‘lacked teeth’ to punish violators or those who screen offensive content. In the case the bench was hearing, it protected Amazon Prime Video India Commercial head Aparna Purohit from arrest in the ‘Tandav’ web series row.

The exchange in court during the hearing took the tone of a negotiation process where the court seems to be pushing the government to enact even stricter laws. “We went through your Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules of 2021... these are merely guidelines. There is no provision for punishment or fine... What is the mechanism to control it [content]” Justice Ashok Bhushan, heading the Bench, asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The Solicitor General in turn agreed, on behalf of the government, to consider drafting new regulations or even legislation to address the concern raised by the court about OTT platforms. “We can come out with it... We can come out with a draft and place it before the court,” he stated. The court recorded in its order that the new rules notified days back were “more in the nature of guidelines” and there was “no effective mechanism for screening or to take appropriate action” against violators. The Bench also ordered that the regulations/legislation, once done, should be placed before the court.

This exchange, coming as it does after the court made it clear in an earlier hearing that it was in favour of ‘screening’ content, raises several questions about the direction in which the various moves to regulate digital content could go. That the court in this case seems to be more in favour of punishment than the government is somewhat extraordinary in itself, but the merits of the new rules now seem to have been pre-judged, with the court seen to lean heavily in one direction, before a challenge has even been raised on their constitutionality. These issues mark this story out as our top pick of the day.

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