The Union Government of India, on 14th March, banned 18 OTT platforms along with 19 websites, 10 apps (among which 7 were on the Google Play store and 3 on the Apple app store), and a total of 57 social media accounts associated with these platforms, which had accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, X, etc. for publishing ‘obscene’, ‘vulgar’ and to some extent pornographic contents.
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List of the 18 banned OTT platforms
The 18 streaming platforms that faced the ban are Dreams Films, Besharams, Hunters, Voovi, Tri Flicks, X Prime, Xtramood, Neon X VIP, Rabbit, Mojflix, Hot Shots VIP, Fugi, Nuefliks, MoodX, Yessma, Uncut Adda, Chikooflix, and Prime Play.
Press Release by PIB
In a press release from the Press Information Bureau, it was stated that Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, had repeatedly highlighted the responsibility of the platforms not to disseminate obscenity, vulgarity and abusive content in the name of creative and artistic expression. According to the government, the platforms have been prohibited after multiple warnings from the Ministry of I&B.
The release also said that a large portion of the content produced on these platforms contained portrayals of women in a degrading manner, inappropriate depiction of nudity and sexual acts, such as illicit affairs between teachers and students, incest between family members, etc. It also added that the content included sexual implications and in some cases elongated portions of pornographic scenes without any context or relevance.
Charge against the OTTs
The decision to block the OTT platforms from public access was taken under the provisions of the Information Technology Act of 2003 after consulting with the other ministries of government, media & entertainment experts, women’s rights officials as well as child rights officials.
The government said that the content violated Section 67 and Section 67 (A) of the IT Act (Publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form and Publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts in electronic form), Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (sale, distribution, or possession of any obscene object or materials that are lascivious or likely to corrupt and deprave people), and Section 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 (publication or sending by post of books, pamphlets, etc. containing indecent representation of women).
Reach of the concerned platforms
According to the PIB release, one of the OTT apps aggregated more than 1 crore downloads whereas other two apps had over 50 lakh downloads on the Google Play store app. These apps reportedly made ample use of their social media handles for promoting their content via trailers, specific clips and external links in order to attract audience to their apps and websites. The social media accounts of these streaming platforms had cumulated over 32 lakh followers.
Importance of censorship
The advent of OTT platforms in India took a surge since the Covid pandemic broke out. The theatres being shut for a long time people opted for online streaming platforms for their amusement. Since its inception, popular OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar, Voot, Zee5, etc have produced numerous quality content over time. However, there is also a need for proper censorship without interrupting the freedom of expression. The Ministry of I&B said in this matter that it regularly engages with the OTT platforms and their self-regulatory bodies set up under the IT rules in 2021, through meetings, webinars, workshops, etc.
