New Delhi:

The government’s effort to combat ‘vulgar’ content on social media and OTT platforms require strengthening of existing laws, Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Parliament Wednesday, declaring such to be the result of “differences between our culture and the culture of countries from these platforms come (referring obliquely to the West)”.

Mr Vaishnaw was responding to a Zero Hour question by BJP MP Arun Govil about laws to check ‘abusive’ content online, including that on social media and available on OTT platforms.

“There is a lot of difference between the (cultural) sensitivities in our country and the countries from where these platforms come. So, I would like the Standing Committee to take up this issue… the existing law needs to be strengthened, and I request a consensus on this,” he said.

Mr Vaishnaw also blamed the lack of an “editorial check” on content posted online.

“… the way editorial content used to be… an editorial check used to be done, if something is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’… has ended. Social media, today, is a big medium of freedom of the press but, at the same time, due to the end of that editorial check, vulgar content is also played.”

The Union Minister spoke after Mr Govil – an actor who made his name playing Lord Ram in the hugely popular Ramayan TV series – claimed content on social media “does not match Indian culture” and called for a government watchdog to “keep a close eye” on material posted online.

The statement comes a month after his deputy, L Murugan, confirmed the government is drafting a new policy to regulate OTT content; this is aimed at non-self-regulating providers.

In March, weeks before the federal election – Mr Vaishnaw’s predecessor, Anurag Thakur, blocked 18 OTT apps for publishing “obscene,” “vulgar,” and, in some instances, “pornographic content”. They were also found to have “portrayed women in a demeaning manner”.

The quest to identify and eliminate ‘vulgar’ content online – the definition of what is and what isn’t vulgar, apart from that identified as illegal under existing laws, is not clear – has played out often over the past decade, including in challenges to OTT platforms like Netflix and Prime.

There was a massive row in September over a Netflix web series on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight by Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. A row over the changing of two of the terrorists’ names led to protests and the government stepped in, after which Netflix said future content would be “in accordance with the nation’s sentiments”.

In August last year the government also told the Delhi High Court its policy governing social media platforms and intermediaries will incorporate necessary rules and regulations to ensure the space occupied by them is free from vulgar language and profanities.

The court had said the challenge faced by India, as by many other countries, for enacting appropriate law, guidelines and rules to regulate the content on social media and OTT platforms needs urgent attention.