The Supreme Court yesterday (March 4) said that screening of content being streamed on OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video was necessary as some of the shows contained “pornography”. The apex court directed that the Centre’s recently-framed rules to regulate social media and OTT platforms be placed before it. The court was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of Amazon Prime’s commercial head, Aparna Purohit, in the Tandav case.
Observing that traditional film viewing had changed, with people now accessing films on OTT platforms, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy said, “There should be some screening.” Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said that shows on OTT platforms also contained foul language. The FIR in the Tandav case was filed in U.P. Aparna’s advocate argued that the rules would not be applicable in the current case as they were framed after the controversy erupted.
The bench said, a balance had to be maintained between the artiste’s right to freedom of speech and expression and the right of people who got offended by the content. The judges asked Tushar Mehta to place the rules framed by the Centre before it and posted the case for today (March 5).