NEW DELHI: Amid mixed reactions over the government’s decision to regulate content on OTT platforms, the Centre is planning to frame rules that will govern digital content on such platforms and social media. This will be done after due consultations with stakeholders.
The government is looking at the change on business rules that brings the platforms within the purview of the information and broadcasting ministry as required in order to plug several loopholes where content on OTT platforms as well as news circulated or broadcast through social media was not being subject to any scrutiny.
Government sources said bodies like the film certification board, Press Council of India and the News Broadcasters’ Association exercised jurisdictions which were, however, not applicable to OTT platforms and social media. “When a search engine picks up news and circulates it, then it is also a publisher, and must be accountable. Also, it not only circulates news, but often prioritises it,” a source said.
Even as government officials said it is too early to speculate over how the regulation of digital content is likely to pan out, it also remains as yet unclear whether the government plans to tweak the existing Programme Code for TV and extend it to cover digital platforms, or if a separate legislation or autonomous body is to be proposed to oversee digital platforms and the content they curate and stream.
Sources said the proposed media council that could be an over-arching regulator is still in the works, and will need more consideration. Meanwhile, guidelines of the platforms that “fell in the gap” would be finalised.
Earlier this week, the Centre ordered that all digital content, both in the area of news and entertainment, will be brought under the jurisdiction of the information and broadcasting ministry. This would include online news portals that offer a range of news and comment.
Earlier this year, 15 OTT platforms had come together as signatories for adopting a Universal Self-Regulation Code.
The move, though in the works for some months, triggered talk of governmental censorship, and is seen as going against the government’s earlier assertion where it had favoured self-regulation by OTT platforms instead of intervention by the state.
and even agreed to set up a Digital Content Complaints Committee on the lines of a similar committee for broadcasting content. This was, however, rejected by the government on grounds that there was no clear code of ethics and the definition of prohibited content was also unclear.
On Thursday though, questions about whether there are plans afoot to set up a CBFC-like model to certify online films and TV series yielded no clear answers.
The demand for regulation of digital content has grown on social media for several months, with some opposing the foul language and others running down the alleged "culturally offensive" content on OTT platforms. Some of the complainants have been pro-Hindutva groups.
Among some filmmakers who questioned the decision were Vikramaditya Motwane. Shortly after the decision was announced, Motwane, the executive director of web series Sacred Games, quoted the Supreme Court’s observation during the hearing of Republic Editor Arnab Goswami’s bail plea that “if you don’t like a channel, don’t watch it”.