The government has recently clarified that all the OTT platforms will have to classify and check their adult content themselves and it will not be done by the center.
Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur had said a few days ago that there should be censorship and strict regulations for OTT content just like films. There had been many conplaints about the overwhelming nudity and profanity in web series and movies in OTT and the Ministry actively decided to have some regulations on it. The decision was criticised by many as it will hamper the creative liberty that filmmakers get with OTT.
Platform and freedom-of-expression activists demanded that OTT is a medium of personal Entertainment and not something for public exhibition and so the rules are utterly useless. The I&B Ministry has clarified that there will be no central board for OTT censorship but the platforms need to act responsibly and check their content themselves. The streaming guants must bot exploit their power of influencing so many people through their content. Anurag Thakur has said “The Code requires such publishers not to transmit any content which is prohibited by law and to undertake age-based classification of content into 5 categories… [and] to put in place adequate safeguard for restricting age-inappropriate content for children and with adequate access control measures such as parental locks etc..”. This is a good balance for the demands of both parties.