Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday called for existing legislation to be made stricter in order to curb “vulgar content” on social media and over-the-top platforms.

The minister said that the parliamentary standing committee should take up the matter. “I will appeal to develop a consensus on it,” he added while responding to question by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Arun Govil during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.

In his question, Govil claimed that vulgar content on over-the-top platforms and social media was damaging moral values and culture. He asked about the existing mechanisms to check such content.

The MP from Meerut also asked whether the Union government proposed to make the existing laws more stringent as the current legislation was not very effective to stop the misuse of these platforms.

In response, Vaishnaw said that there were editorial checks earlier to assess whether a certain piece of content was appropriate or not. However, these checks were no longer in place, he added.

“Today, social media, which is a major platform for freedom of the press in a way, is also an uncontrolled expression in another way, in which vulgar content also comes due to lack of editorial check,” the minister said.

Govil also asked whether the Union government was considering adopting policies to regulate the operations of foreign and over-the-top platforms that allegedly distribute objectionable content, with the aim of holding them accountable under Indian laws.

“There is a lot of difference between the culture of our country and the countries from where these social media platforms have come,” he said. “So I would like the parliamentary standing committee to take up this issue and strict laws are made on the issue.”