THE SUBTERFUGE METHODS OF SHORT-FORM VERTICAL DRAMA APPS:ALGORITHMIC LOOPHOLES, ROMANTIC PROBLEMETIC IN NATURE, EXISTING FRAMEWORK AND REGULATORY FORESIGHT IN INDIA

The rapid explosion of digital entertainment has introduced a silent yet highly predatory phenomenon: short-form vertical drama applications (Duanju). Characterized by a 9:16 portrait layout, high-intensity cliffhangers, and ultra-short episodes, these platforms successfully bypass traditional regulatory guardrails. This paper exposes the dual-layered subterfuge engineered by these applications to exploit structural blind spots in automated content moderation and individual consumer psychology within the Indian digital ecosystem. First, this study dissects the mechanism of algorithmic evasion and contextual obfuscation. It demonstrates how these platforms deliberately replace explicit imagery and banned keywords with melodramatic euphemisms. By doing so, they smoothly slip past the automated AI screening filters of major intermediaries like YouTube Shorts and Meta. This allows deeply toxic, problematic romantic tropes—such as non-consensual captivity, psychological coercion, and extreme hyper-power dynamics—to feed directly into the screens of minor audiences without any age-gating restrictions. Second, it uncovers the deceptive bait-and-switch micro-transaction models, which weaponize narrative cliffhangers to trap users inside compounding virtual paywalls, preying heavily on modern, infobesity-driven digital impatience. Finally, evaluating this crisis through the lens of Indian jurisprudence, the article identifies a critical legal vacuum. It highlights how these apps successfully slip through the Information Technology Rules, 2021, by fragmenting their content to escape upfront age-verification, while shielding themselves behind complex cross-border corporate holding networks.