The Save Culture Save Bharat Foundation (SCSBF) has suggested that the government classify and treat the production of sexually perverted and incestuous content on all OTT platforms as Anti-National Activity. The group held a press event to make the demand of a complete ban on sexually perverted content. The group cited the example of Dubai and also suggested that a law of ethics code be established to declare all sorts of production and/or streaming of “sexually perverted content” on all audio-video (AV) platforms as “anti-national activity”.
The demands included a punishment of upto 20 years of imprisonment for violation of the proposed code of ethics. It also demanded that violation of the code be treated as abetment to rape. The SCSBF also suggested an amendment to the existing IT Act calling for categorizing all such content in one group and making it accessible through Aadhaar card or biometrics.
Shri Uday Mahurkar, Former Central Information Commissioner; Satguru Riteshwar Ji Maharaj, Prasthapak, Shri Anandam Dham Vrindavan; Paramatmanand ji Saraswati, Sanyojak, Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha; Supreme Court Advocate Sushri Monika Arora; Social activist and lawyer Shri Hari Shankar Jain; Shri Sanjeev Newar, author-activist and founder of Gems of Bollywood; and Sushri Swati Goel Sharma, journalist and founder of Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation, among others, were present for the event held to demand the ban and seek amendments in the laws of the country.
The group also talked about Alt Balaji’s web series XXX and Shri Mahurkar said, “The foundation is appalled at content that glorifies inappropriate and incestuous relationships, such as those between father-in-law and daughter-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, student and teacher, and even grandson and grandmother. Such content is detrimental to the very fabric of our nation’s social integrity. We demand exemplary punishment for
the perpetrators of such vulgar content so that the trend to present adult content and double-meaning audiovisuals in the name of entertainment stops immediately.”
He added, “We want to warn these culture-defying conspirators that their days of impunity and immunity are over and they will now be held accountable for the heinous content they produce and for polluting our children’s minds. The path to greatness for India and its aspiration to be a Vishwaguru hinges on addressing the issue of sexually explicit content, which poses a significant threat to our societal cohesion and stands as the foremost challenge for the new Bharat.”
Sri Maharaj added, “In disguise of entertainment, we are seeing that a lot of anti-
India forces are spreading vulgar content on the internet. This is nothing but waging a cultural war against our values. Showcasing incestuous content goes unchecked and the people behind such content are immune. We need stringent laws right now before they succeed in invading our civilisation.”
Padma Shree Nivedita Bhide said, “We need to stop letting these anti-social and anti-India elements take advantage of our tolerance and relaxed norms governing the OTT space in India. The proposed Law of Ethics Code is a crucial step toward safeguarding our cultural heritage and ensuring responsible content creation in the digital age.”
Incidentally, this is not a new topic neither is the demand new. In 2021, the Supreme Court of India suggested screening of online content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms while hearing a plea filed by Amazon Prime Video’s Aparna Purohit. According to the new IT Rules that came that year, a three-tier mechanism is required to address complaints as well the classification of content. However, there was no mention of any sort of screening before the content is published online.