Showing concern towards the urgent need for regulation of vulgar language in publication c domain and on social media platforms like OTT, the Delhi High Court in the case of TVF MEDIA LABS PVT LTD & ORS v. STATE (Govt. NCT OF DELHI) & ANR said that the use of obscenities in the form of foul language degrades women so they may feel victims as the expletives and obscenities refer to women being objects of sex. “The use of obscene words and foul language in social media platforms have to be regulated when it crosses a particular line, as it can be a true threat to impressionable minds and cannot receive constitutional protection of free speech.
The matter started with the hustle regarding the TVF web series “College Romance” where the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) asked the Delhi Police to file an FIR against the show directors Simarpreet Singh and Apoorva Arora under the Information Technology Act. The HC uploaded the verdict of the ACMM.
The court further said that the Ministry of Information and Technology needs to take some steps for enforcing the stricter application of its rules notified in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and should make appropriate rules and laws.
The court found that there is excessive use of ‘swear words’,’profane language’ and ‘vulgar expletives’ and in the opinion of the court, this is not the language that the nation’s youth or other citizens use. Also, the youth being the representative and future of the country are appreciated if they possess a decent level of linguistic proficiency among other things.
Thus, the Court observed that “the impressionable minds consume what they have been served and they will serve the same on the streets, in schools, in their houses and all other places resulting in absence of civilized society. Societal standards fall if no effort is made to ensure that they are upheld. The petty incivilities will certainly lead to declining standards of civility and the fallen language standards will lead to moral depravity.”