The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Central Government if it is planning to frame a policy to examine the “addiction-causing” design architecture employed by social media platforms, including infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmically curated feeds, persistent notifications and “likes”.

A division bench comprising Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Amit Sharma asked ASG Chetan Sharma to obtain instructions in the matter.

The Court deferred for three weeks hearing in the PIL filed by Dr. Vikas Kathuria, a Law Professor.

He seeks constitution of an expert committee to examine the “engagement-maximising” and “addiction-causing” design architecture of the social media platforms.

As the Court queried whether the Central Government is contemplating framing of policy on the issue, ASG Sharma said that he does not have specific instructions as of now.

Referring to Supreme Court and Delhi High Court orders refusing to entertain similar matters, Sharma said that the prayer sought in the plea falls in the area of policy domain.

As Sharma said that the petition can be treated as a representation and be decided in a time bound manner, the Court wondered how it can ask the government to frame a policy within a time bound manner and asked Sharma to inform if government is contemplating framing any issue in the matter.

The plea flags impact of such designs and features on the mental health of youngsters and seeks compensation from Meta, Google, Telegram, X Corp and Snapchat for being designed in a way of being addictive and for causing mental health issues to the young users.

The respondents named are the Union Ministries of Electronics and Information Technology, Women and Child Development, Education and Health and Family Welfare, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), as well as Meta Platforms, Google LLC, Snap, X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

Kathuria states that his concern is not the content disseminated through social media but the underlying design of the platforms, which, according to him, is “engineered to capture, retain and repeatedly re-stimulate users' attention.”

The plea identifies infinite scroll, autoplay, short-duration videos such as reels, personalised feeds, notification systems and variable-reward engagement metrics such as “likes”.

Kathuria submits that Indian law presently does not specifically regulate addictive platform architecture as distinct from unlawful or harmful content.

The petition refers to a “mental-health crisis” among the 15-24 age group associated with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, cyberbullying stress and compulsive scrolling. The PIL also cites international developments concerning regulation of addictive social-media design.

Kathuria has said that the PIL does not seek a blanket prohibition on social media but seeks regulation of specific engagement-maximising features through calibrated measures.

The plea seeks a direction to the Union Government to constitute an expert committee to examine engagement-maximising design features and recommend evidence-based design standards and safeguards.

It also seeks directions to restrict, prohibit or regulate such design features as well as compensation from the social-media companies for alleged harm caused by such design features.

Title: DR VIKAS KATHURIA v. Union of India & Ors