Digital crackdown needed for social media too!

The Indian government's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has recently banned 25 steaming platforms accused of distributing obscene and vulgar content. While this digital crackdown is praiseworthy and was indeed necessary, there are a few points that are worth discussing:

1. Most of these platforms have been operating for more than 5 years and during the COVID pandemic lockdown period, these online apps flourished big time. So the question is, why did it take more than 5 years for the I&B Ministry to wake up and take a stand on this?

2. Somewhere I read that these platforms have been accused of streaming 'soft porn' content. Who is being tried to fool here? Sources confirm that quite a few of those 25 online apps show hardcore pornographic content, which certainly can't be labelled as 'soft porn'.

3. A lot of news channels and social rights organizations have been vociferous since the time this news has been revealed. One common point flagged by all of them is that such obscene content is harmful for the society at large, especially women, and also children, since they have easy access to such stuff in today's protected yet not-so-protected digital environment. While this point is absolutely true, is it only these platforms that are to be blamed and whipped? What about the titillating videos posted on social media by wannabe and even established users on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc.

Photo Courtesy: Google Images

I personally feel that a stronger crackdown is needed on these, as thousands of people are creating such online channels with obscene or suggestive content and posting their videos or photos regularly that are generating massive views. Allowing such channels to mint money by capitalizing on their stimulating content and grabbing herds of eyeballs is as big a mistake as it was to allow those 25 steaming platforms to flourish for so many years.
Location: JCPR+G48, Nazrul Islam Avenue, Kaikhali, North Dumdum, West Bengal 700052, India

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