In a recent development Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has issued a formal advisory thereby ordering all OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries to ban all content originating from Pakistan immediately.
The move comes amidst the ongoing political and military tension between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack at Pahalgam. India had conducted Operation Sindoor as a response to this attack and targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India had been planned and directed under Operation Sindoor.
According to the advisory issued under Part lll of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, “in the interest of national security, all OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries operating in India are advised to discontinue the web-series, films, songs, podcasts and other streaming media content, whether made available on a subscription based model or otherwise, having its origins in Pakistan with immediate effect.”
Though the advisory is non-binding in nature, non-compliance might result in penalisation under the aforementioned IT Rules thereby potentially putting their operational licenses and liabilities protections under risk.
Platforms have already started taking cognisance of the advisory and started complying with it.