With the digital landscape in India opening up rapidly like never before, a survey by a UK-based survey agency called YouGov Omnibus has thrown up surprising revelations.
According to the survey carried out at the end of October, 57% Indians are in favour of censorship on OTT platforms such as Netflix, Boot, Amazon Prime and Hotstar. Even more surprising is the fact that more men than women want the government to impose regulation on online content.
The survey reinforced the belief that we Indians are inherently prudes by nature. Most people surveyed, an astonishing 9 out of ten, were in favour of government control over all forms of content, whether movies, TV or digital content.
Another bit of info uncovered by the survey was more in line with general perceptions – the need for censorship on OTT was felt more acutely by the older generation – 66% of GenX participants gave their nod in favour of censorship, against 35% for GenZ.
There has been a clamour in recent times to regulate content disseminated on streaming platforms. Netflix shows Sacred Games 1 and Leila have particularly come under fire for their controversial content. Even the government has been mulling over introducing regulation of online content.
Will censorship on OTT platforms, if it does come about, spell the death knell of this nascent content conduit? All we can do is wait and watch.
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