New IT rules not meant to censor content, I&B Minister tells OTT players

New Delhi: In an attempt to quell the doubts of the OTT (Over-the-top) industry vis a vis the new IT rules, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today assured the representatives of various OTT platforms that they themselves were expected to develop an effective grievance redressal mechanism.

Representatives of various OTT platforms including from Alt Balaji, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Jio, Zee5, Viacom18, Shemaroo, MxPlayer,  had called on Javadekar who assured them that  in the self-regulating body, no member will be appointed by the Government, and that the Government will create Inter Departmental Committee to look at complaints which remain unresolved at the self-regulatory level.

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Javadekar clarified that  as per the provisions of the rules, the OTT players were “merely” required to disclose information and that there was no requirement of registration of any kind with the Ministry. He said a form for this will be ready soon. He said the rules focussed on self classification of content instead of any form of censorship. “Further, OTT platforms are expected to develop an effective grievance redressal mechanism,” he said.

Javadekar stated that he had received representations from cinema and TV industries that while there were regulations for them, none existed for OTT industry. Thus, it was decided that Government would come out with progressive institutional mechanism for OTT players and develop a level playing field with the idea of self-regulation, he said. 

– global bihari bureau