Some OTT services may be regulated
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is looking at the possibility of bringing over-the-top (OTT) digital communication services that provide same or similar services as telecom service providers (TSPS) under the same licensing or regulatory norms that are applicable to the latter.
This comes against the background of critics continuing to bat for the freedom of the Internet and the unique nature of OTT services such as digital media, including Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Hike and others that perform the same functions of voice and messaging as telcos.
The most important argument, during an open house discussion held on Monday on the regulatory framework for OTT communication services, was the threat to national security and data privacy. Information, often false, sent on these social media platforms, especially during national or natural emergencies is a huge threat to the country and a prime example of the misuse and exploitation of these services.
“Communication services is a broad term and can include both real time and non-real time services such as email or Internet websites to govern which the IT Act is already there. We are, however, restricting our scope to those OTT services whose function is similar to those TSPS that have a licence,” said Trai chairman RS Sharma. The regulatory imbalance between TSPS and OTT services formed the central question of the discussion and the regulatory body would come out with a set of regulations or recommendations within a month, said Sharma. There is currently no pre-remedy to prevent the proliferation of such content in India or an official body to report grievances to, said Satyam Singh Rajput, founder of an NGO called Justice for Rights Foundation that had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking regulation of content on these platforms that is often explicit and offensive.
Trai said that video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hotstar may be brought under the purview at some point in the future but were currently exempt from the discussion. Earlier this year, nine OTT video-on-demand services including Hotstar, Voot, ZEE5, Arre, SONYLIV, ALT Balaji, Reliance Jio, Netflix and Eros Now decided to adopt a self-regulatory code of best practices under the aegis of the Internet and Mobile Association of India.
Further, telecom operators fully support the regulation of OTT services in view of their own interests.