Failure to exercise restraint on social media may lead to state intervention: Supreme Court
The bench sought the state’s assistance on the ‘guidelines to be issued to citizens’, but said that it was not ‘speaking about censorship’.
The Supreme Court on Monday said that citizens must realise the value of freedom of speech and exercise self-restraint on social media, failing which the state would intervene, The Indian Express reported.
The bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan also considered framing guidelines to control “divisive tendencies” on social media platforms, PTI reported.
The bench was hearing a plea by Kolkata resident Wajahat Khan who had sought the consolidation of first information reports filed against him in several states in connection with his allegedly objectionable posts about Hindu deities on social media.
The court noted that reasonable restrictions can be placed on the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.
The bench said that the restrictions had been placed correctly and that the state could step in if there was a violation.
“We are not speaking about censorship,” Live Law quoted Nagarathna as saying. “But in the interest of fraternity, secularism and dignity of individuals...We will have to go into this beyond this petition.”
Nagarathna said that one of the fundamental duties of citizens was to uphold the unity and integrity of the country. “…See all these divisive tendencies, at least on social media, must be curbed,” she said. “But to what extent can the state curb?”
She went on to ask: “Instead, why can’t the citizens themselves regulate themselves? Citizens must know the value of freedom of speech and expression. If they don’t then the state will step in and who wants the state to step in? Nobody wants the state to step in.”
The bench asked the petitioner’s counsel and the state “to assist vis-à-vis the guidelines to be issued to the citizens to comply”.
In March, the Supreme Court asked the Union government to frame regulations to stop the broadcast of programmes that do not meet the “acceptable moral standards of our society”, particularly on social media platforms while ensuring that the measures do not impinge the fundamental right to free speech.
The court was hearing YouTuber Ranveer Allahabadia’s plea to consolidate several FIRs filed against him for his sexually explicit comments on a comedy talent show India’s Got Latent.
