Govt mulling ethics code for digital creators with 5 mln followers
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This story was originally published at 14:21 IST on 21 February 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Union government is mulling a code of ethics for digital content creators with at least 5 million subscribers or followers, according to an information and broadcasting ministry official, who spoke to Informist on condition of anonymity. As per the official, the government may also make it mandatory for these influential content creators to undertake age-based classification of their content and give ratings and disclaimers about the content they publish.
The developments come amid the comments made by YouTuber Ranveer Allahabadia on comedian Samay Raina's YouTube show "India's Got Latent". In the show, Allahabadia made a joke that caught public attention for being offensive.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court called for regulating obscene content on YouTube. It issued notice to the Centre asking if the government intended to introduce measures to regulate online content. The apex court emphasised that "there was a need to do something" as content creators were taking advantage of the lack of oversight on digital platforms. The court had also asked Attorney General R. Venkatramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the court in addressing the issue of explicit content on online platforms in absence of regulations.
"We would be very happy if the government takes appropriate action on its own. If it does not, we will not overlook the importance and sensitivity of this issue. There is a vacuum in the regulation of online content, and we would like to take necessary steps to address it," the bench said during the hearing.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology and Communication has also written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asking it to clarify whether the existing laws are strong enough to regulate online content. The parliamentary panel highlighted the increased misuse of social media platforms and asked the ministry to brief that whether the IT Act, 2000 needs to be amended to bring such platforms under legal scrutiny. End
Reported by Kuldeep Singh
Edited by Tanima Banerjee
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