Union Minister for I&B Ashwini Vaishnaw misses editorial check on social media

Union Minister for I&B Ashwini Vaishnaw misses editorial check on social media

During the ongoing Winter Parliament session, Union Minister Information & Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed the government’s progressive intention to curb and implement stringent laws to curb vulgar content on social media.

He cited the uncontrolled nature of online media and proposed for consensus to the Parliamentary board to develop more robust legal framework to combat the continuous spread of vulgar content on Instagram. This came through during the Question Hour and as a response to a query by BJP member Arun Govil, who is also famously known for his portrayal of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan.

Arun Govil had earlier raised a question regarding the government's mechanism to control the rampant posting of vulgar content. He remarked that the current laws to control such content are not sufficient. The Union Minister agreed that such content does not reflect Indian Culture. “These (Social Media) platforms have been developed in different parts of the world and thus there is a lot of cultural difference.”, said the minister. He also added that absence of traditional editorial check is also affecting the type of content posted.

During the lockdown, the central government banned TikTok, albeit under the threat of data privacy. While the platform generated a separate industry altogether of content creators and gave them a steady income source, however, misuse of the social media platform was creating a substantial nuisance, especially among the young creators. The looming challenge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) too in the field of Art & Entertainment needs to be tended.