In a petition filed by an NGO, Maatra Foundation which seeked regulation of sexually explicit and salacious content on OTT platforms was met with a final opportunity for the respondents to reply to the petition within eight weeks.
An Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court listed the matter for final hearing wherein petitioner counsel Amay Bajaj raised the matter of uncensored content on streaming platforms which was of foul or obscene nature.
He made an argument for the case by calling upon the accessibility of these platforms to minor children as well as their increased usage in times of lockdown due to cinema halls being shut.
The OTT platforms are in violation of fundamental rights such as sec. 19(2), 21 and 51A(e), sec. 67 and 67A under the ITA, 2000, some sections under the Indian Penal Code as well as Indecent Representation of Women(Prohibition) Act 198.
In an RTI application filed by the counsel, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the CBFC had informed them that the supervision of the online content on various platforms did not fall under their purview.
Despite being given multiple chances the Union Ministry, CBFC, Ministry Of Electronics and OTT platforms failed to respond.
This is not the first time a petition has been filed against streaming services to regulate their content in India. There was a special petition filed last year against the government to regulate content and ultimately they responded that while they don’t have the authority to supervise online content, a self-regulation model could work for the online platforms.
Now the onus is on the OTT platforms to file a reply as well as take concrete steps towards proper regulation of content while maintaining its creative liberties.
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