The Supreme Court of India has directed social media influencers, including Samay Raina, to display an unconditional apology on their podcast and programmes for ridiculing disabled persons. The apex court observed that freedom of speech and expression can’t be applicable to commercial speech that hurts the sentiments of the other community. The court asked the Centre to frame guidelines for social media to curb speeches that offend or ridicule disabled, women, children and senior citizens.
The Supreme Court’s order followed a petition by M/s Cure SMA Foundation requesting the prevention of broadcasting content that is derogatory towards persons with disabilities on digital media. The petition also called for the formulation of guidelines to safeguard the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities on online platforms.
During the hearing on July 15, the court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to draft social media guidelines balancing free speech and other rights. Emphasising the difficulty of enforcing such guidelines, the bench remarked. Further Justice Kant had stressed the need to protect dignity: “What we are doing is for posterity. You have to ensure that a single words is not misused by anyone.. A framework must be there that the dignity of anyone is not violated”.
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