House IT panel debates curbs for OTT platforms

The decision attracted criticism that it would lead to unnecessary censorship of content

NEW DELHI: Members of a parliamentary panel on Information Technology that met on Thursday have differing views on the need and modalities of regulating OTT (over the top) platforms (essentially streaming services), some of which have been in the news over the past few months for airing content that outraged some audiences.

According to people familiar with the matter, at the meeting of the parliamentary panel on IT, Bharatiya Janata Party MPS including Syed Zafar Islam and Anil Aggarwal stated that there is need for censoring online content, but MPS from other parties said it was important to define a context as well as a procedure for this.

The people, who asked not to be named added that Islam emphasized the “Indian ethos” and stated that there needs to be a clear distinction between “artistic freedom and obscenity”. “Islam wanted a debate on the bounds of artistic freedom, which seemingly has no boundary. But there is a need to compromise,” one of the people said.

Most recently, Tandav, a show on Amazon Prime came under scrutiny for offending religious sentiments. But the problem isn’t just with multinational OTT platforms. For instance, there are a few Indian ones that specialise in soft-porn.

The ministry of Information and Broadcasting, on 11 November, decided to bring OTT platforms and digital news and current affairs content under its ambit. Popular OTT platforms include Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar (Disney Plus), Sonyliv, Zee5 and Eros Now. The decision attracted criticism that it would lead to unnecessary censorship of content.

The people familiar with the matter said that Sunny Deol (a film star and BJP MP) and Ambareesh Sumalatha (a former actress, elected with BJP support) did not weigh in on the matter. “Sunny Deol said that all options need to be considered,” the first person added.

According to a second person, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram stated that there is no technical way to exercise censorship over online platforms. “He (Karti) said that anyone can setup an OTT platform,” this person added.

People familiar with the matter said that Karti was backed by Congress MPS Nasir Hussain, Shashi Tharoor and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.

Hindustan Times reported that on January 13, the panel met the representatives of ministry of information and broadcasting and CBFC on the subject ‘Review of functioning of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)’. Officials from both the departments, including CBFC chairperson Prasoon Joshi, attended the meeting.

That discussion veered to the very need for censorship.

Officials from CBFC, however, said at that meeting that censorship was necessary keeping in mind the sensitivities of people.