The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to implement the recommendations of a court-appointed panel on blocking videos of rape and child pornography on the internet, The Indian Express reported. The recommendations include setting up a hotline number for filing anonymous complaints against such videos, and a cell within the Central Bureau of Investigation to deal with such crimes.

A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice UU Lalit said the government, internet service providers and web and social media platforms – including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, WhatsApp and Microsoft – should “abide by the recommendations” and implement them at the earliest.

The bench also asked the government to file a status report on the implementation before December 11, which is when it will next hear the case.

The panel has suggested that the government should ensure that all search engines should block web addresses of such videos, and internet companies should provide information to non-profit outfits working in the domain about these issues. It also proposed that an independent agency should identify websites that host such content.

In March, the Supreme Court had set up the panel of experts to find a way to block videos of rape and child pornography from being uploaded on the internet. On December 5, 2016, the court had issued notices to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, seeking their replies to a petition demanding an end to uploading and sharing content related to sexual offences on the internet. The petition was filed by the NGO Prajwala in Hyderabad.