The amicus curiae in the matter where Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of gangrape videos circulating on the internet has asked the government to take all steps to prevent uploading and dissemination of rape videos, revenge porn, child pornographyetic including through revision of intermediary rules.
The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it was investing Rs 196 crore to create cyber crime prevention cells and train 2,500 women police officers, 25,000 male police officers as well as 13,000 judicial officers to prevent and punish those uploading offensive material against women and children on the internet.
In an affidavit, additional solicitor general Maninder Singh informed a bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice U U Lalit about the investment. The court has asked all stakeholders, including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and search engines to find preventive steps.
The bench said that by the time the offensive content was removed from the internet, it would have caused irreparable damage to the victim's reputation.
hat on any given day, videos running into 400 hours get uploaded. "If one has to take preventive measures to weed out offensive videos, huge manpower is required. It will be almost impossible for a search engine or ISP to detect such videos and stop them from being uploaded. Let the government appoint a nodal agency which will detect offensive videos and inform the ISPs to take them off the internet," the counsel said.
Taking objection to this argument, Singh said, "Search engines and ISPs are only interested in raking in revenue but are not ready to invest in preventive mechanism". Singh said rules for ISPs and search engines made it mandatory for them to take preventive measures against uploading of offensive material. The Centre's proposal includes a cyber crime reporting platform at a cost of Rs 9.48 crore.
The court’s order came in a PIL where social activist Sunitha Krishnan of the #ShameTheRapistCampaign fame who received nearly 200 rape videos sent by victims has demanded an agency with a pan-Indian jurisdiction to investigate those and a direction to Centre to the social media. CBI has already been entrusted with the probe.
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