New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Tuesday has sought response from the Centre, Facebook, Google and Twitter over a plea seeking removal of groups like ‘Bois locker room‘ “for the safety and security of children” in cyberspace.
A bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notice to the ministries of home affairs, Information Technology and finance, and also social media platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter asking them to declare their stand on affidavit by the next date of hearing on July 14.
The standing counsel of the Central government has accepted the notice on behalf of the ministeries.
The plea was moved by RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya “highlighting the unlawful nature of illegal groups” like “Bois locker room”. It also argued that “the incident of ‘Bois locker room’ on Instagram shows one of the vilest forms of social media”.
“Due to the negativity, fake news and illegal content many young lives are destroyed. Such groups are criminal in nature and do not deserve any protection of free or creative speech,” the application further stated.
The court on Monday had also directed the Delhi police to speed up the investigation of ‘Bois locker room’, a private Instagram group of young schoolboys from South Delhi which gained limelight after screenshots of obscene messages and morphed pictures of young girls shared in the group went viral. The police have arrested an adult and a minor for morphing the images and circulating such messages in the group.
The incident reignited debates around rape culture and toxic masculinity and sparked nationwide outrage leading to an FIR being filed against all members of the group.
It aroused the concerns of parents and teachers alike as boys as young as 13 years were allegedly involved in making violent and explicit comments about girls’ bodies, morphing their pictures and sharing their gangrape fantasies.
