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HomeIndiaI&B ministry to regulate OTT platforms and online news portals

I&B ministry to regulate OTT platforms and online news portals

With OTT platforms like Netflix, Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime and others having the liberty to share content for viewers without any hindrance from the regulatory departments, the government has now notified an order to put these OTT service providers under the monitoring of the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

The order, which was released on Monday, has already been signed by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Before this, no government body regulated the digital streaming platforms as there was no law passed for it.

As of now, the print media is monitored by the Press Council of India (PCI), news channels by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), films are taken care of by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) while the advertisement branch is observed by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

Upon receiving a petition filed regarding the necessity for a separate body to regulate the digital content last month, the Supreme Court bench, consisting of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, reached out to the central government for its take on the matter. Following this, the court sent notices to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Centre and also to the Internet and Mobile Association of India as the platforms use the internet facility for furnishing content to viewers.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) argued in its statement that there is no autonomous body monitoring the content available on these OTT platforms and the public is exposed to all kinds of content without any sort of filtering as is done for films, etc.

Along with this, the petition also claimed that not even one of the digital content service providers had adhered to the guidelines sent by the government since February of 2020 as they did not sign the self-regulation notice of the ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

These platforms not only include film and other entertainment service furnishers like Netflix but also news portals as both of them are open to fetch with the use of internet and also through any mobile network.

The lack of screening has given an upper hand to filmmakers who find it difficult to pass their content through the restrictions and monitoring of the censor board. These platforms allow them to post their work without any need for clearance certificates.

In regards to a different case, the ministry of I&B had previously spoken to the SC about the essentiality of a regulatory body to watch over the digital media. It stated that the top court could initially set up a committee of officials as advisers to the government following which, it could lay down the regulation rules concerned with the monitoring of hate speech used in these platforms.

However, Prakash Javadekar, the I&B Minister had told last year that the government, in no way, will try to snatch the freedom of the media, yet, he said, regulation of a sort to monitor these OTT services must be present similar to the print media and other platforms like the censor boards.