A lawyer from Chennai has submitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to the Madras High Court, requesting the court to direct the Tamil Nadu government and the State police to develop a "regulatory mechanism" to ensure that YouTube content complies with Indian laws and respects the country's social and religious values.

The petitioner, V. Parthiban, argued that YouTube currently lacks a system to manage and control inappropriate and objectionable content, posts, or comments. He emphasized the need for implementing a mechanism to address these issues.

The bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice D. Krishna Kumar and Justice K. Kumaresh Babu adjourned the hearing on the PIL for a week. They instructed the petitioner to include the Union government and YouTube as additional parties to the case.

While the Tamil Nadu government sought to challenge the petition's maintainability, the bench responded, "Let us hear it first. Let us see what he wants. We will issue notice."

The State then pointed out that the petitioner had not yet included the Central government and YouTube as parties. Consequently, the Court decided against issuing a notice at this time and adjourned the hearing for a week, allowing Parthiban to include all relevant parties as respondents.

In his PIL, Parthiban has highlighted that YouTube has increasingly become a platform where users post “unruly comments” and engage in “casual mudslinging” against politicians and public figures. He pointed out that users can create multiple accounts simultaneously, and this activity remains largely unregulated.

The PIL notes that there is no systematic oversight or regulation of the content posted on YouTube; the platform only removes content if flagged by users as objectionable. According to the plea, a regulatory mechanism is crucial for YouTube, given that the platform's origins are in California, USA, and it does not consider India's unique religious and socio-cultural context.