MediaNama reported on 19 October that India's Supreme Court rejected a social media ban for children. In a 137-page order, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Chandran called internet access a fundamental right. They said age limits mean identifying every user and constantly collecting sensitive data. The bench also proposed a shared national list of hashes (codes computed from a file, so copies match) and web addresses of abuse material, perhaps built on the Sahyog portal. Platforms would have two hours to remove material once a legal duty, court order or government notice applies.
None of this is in force. The government must file an affidavit before the court sits again on 10 December. MediaNama says the court has not said how abusive content would be identified. The list would hold only hashes and web addresses, not the material itself.
The court treats users and content differently. It rejects tracking every user, while the list would hold no personal data. The risk that remains is in the scanning. A match is removed with no further check, so the human review before a hash joins the list is the step that matters most. Platform and compliance teams can watch the affidavit for which detection tools are in use, and when Sahyog could host the database.