Streaming services should avoid putting out content “which is harmful, which is illegal, which is offensive and brings a bad name to your country when you’re going abroad,” a top official at the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said at a panel discussion on Thursday. Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary for Policy and Administration at the I&B Ministry, was speaking at a discussion on self-regulation in streaming during the FICCI Frames 2023 event here.
The IT Rules, 2021 were a “moral solution” for producers, by binding them ethically on content. Mr. Sahay expressed satisfaction at the self-regulatory model under the IT Rules for filing complaints against content on OTT platforms, saying only one complaint against online content had been appealed all the way up to the inter-departmental committee formed by the government.
On Wednesday, I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra had alluded to “murmurs about the quality of the language” used on streaming programs.
Awareness gap
Ajit Thakur, co-founder of the Telugu-focused streaming service Aha, said that there was an awareness gap among the public on the IT Rules mandated system for complaining on online content, and on the mandatory age-gating feature to password-protect mature content for children. “In TV, a scroll used to run continuously telling viewers that you can write to BCCC (Broadcast Content Complaints Council),” Mr. Thakur pointed out, adding that both industry and government would have to work to spread awareness on the feature.
“What becomes uncomfortable is to have senior elected officials talking about banning programmes,” Nitin Tej Ahuja, CEO of the Film Producers Guild of India said. “Even they need to be aware that there is a mechanism that exists [to redress grievances against content].”
