The Supreme Court on December 11 said the government can go ahead with a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with the publication and proliferation of sexually abusive online content like child pornography, rape and gang rape videos and objectionable material through social media intermediaries like Google, Youtube Facebook, Microsoft and Whatsapp.
All these online giants had agreed that abusive and criminal content should be “stamped out".
A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit said the government should proceed with the guidelines to curb sexually abusive online content and if any intermediaries have issues with the guidelines may approach the court.
In the previous hearing, online messaging platform WhatsApp had submitted that it had an "end-to-end encryption technology due to which it will not be possible to remove the contents".
The Centre's draft SOP include setting up of proactive monitoring tools for auto-deletion of unlawful content by deploying artificial intelligence based tools, deployment of trusted flaggers for identifying and deletion of unlawful content, setting up of 24/7 mechanisms for requisitions of law enforcement agencies, appointment of India-based contact officers, (with name, designation, email, mobile number), prompt disposal of requisitions of law enforcement agencies to remove unlawful contents.
The court is hearing petitions highlighting the abuse of online platforms for the proliferation and distribution of sexually abusive content.
The court scheduled the next hearing in February.
