Online Hate Speech in India Issues and Regulatory Challenges

Hate speech has been globally recognized as a grave threat to the society. The issue of hate speech becomes even more serious in the present age of internet with the content reaching swiftly to a massive audience. Therefore, creation and circulation of online content has emerged as a new challenge in way of regulation of hate speech which becomes even more difficult in absence of an efficient legal framework. This calls for a legislative intervention to fill in the gaps in the existing laws. The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly emphasized upon the need for a new law regulating online hate speech in India. Besides, several reports have been put forward by the expert Committees and the Law Commission of India proposing certain amendments in the present laws. The recommendations, however, still remain to be followed. In this backdrop, this paper highlights the need for a robust legal framework covering modern forms of hate content proliferating on the internet in light of the developments taking place across the globe.