Kerala High Court Enquires Into Feasibility Of Separate Portal For General Public/ Producers To Upload Info On 'Malicious Review Bombing'

Justice Devan Ramachandran stated thus, “Learned Amicus Curiae Shyam Padman has submitted that has been placed on record by the State Police Chief and suggest whether any fine tuning is required including the creation of a 'dedicated portal' for the producers and the members of the general public to upload information of malicious and blackmailing review bombing.”

The Court had earlier directed concerned authorities to take necessary action under the Information Technology Act against the malicious and anonymous reviews targetting films. Regarding the creation of a separate portal, the Court orally remarked:

“Is not the movie industry one that gives revenue to the government….Is it not one that gives direct and indirect employment to thousands. Is it not your province to support them to the extent which is legally necessary….Can you ever say in these times that the movie can be shut down? Therefore, if you say no to that question, then is it not upon you to keep an eye on these mischievous fellows. Why should there be a compliant at all? Why can't we have a unit that operates for this. Take the charges from producers if you want to. Have a portal where anybody can upload such information. Why can't we have a portal where anybody can upload information about mischievous reviews?”

The Court stated that the State Police Chief has already submitted protocols and that the Court can finalize them. The State Police Chief (SPC) had drafted a protocol to deal with cases of motivated, malicious, negative movie reviews, review bombings etc. and the Court had stated that it was a 'welcome step'.

The Court was seized with the plea filed by the director of 'Aromalinte Adyathe Pranayam', seeking a gag order to ensure that social media influencers and film reviewing vloggers do not publish any reviews of the film for at least 7 days following its release, and another by the Producers' Association highlighting "review bombings" against newly released films.

The Court had earlier called for 'close watch' of online platforms to ensure that anonymous and mala fide reviews of films are not allowed to circulate on the same. It stated that the rights of filmmakers cannot be violated, by using malicious posts, particularly when film reviewers were not registered under any organization, nor accredited, and also had no guidelines to follow while publishing their content on the online platform.

Case title: Mubeen Rauf v. Union of India & Ors. and connected matter

Case number: WP(C) NO. 32733 OF 2023 and WP(C) NO. 33322 OF 2023