New Delhi: Amid the ongoing backlash over vulgarity on social media, the Union government on Thursday (February 20) issued an advisory to over the top (OTT) platforms to abide by laws while publishing content. The advisory comes two days after the Supreme Court flagged a “vacuum in law” while dealing with content on YouTube, and about a week after members of a parliamentary standing committee also raised regulation of vulgar content in their deliberations.
The advisory on Thursday, stated that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had received references from parliamentarians and “representations from statutory organisations and public grievances regarding alleged spread of obscene, pornographic and of content published by certain publishers of online curated content (OTT platforms) and vulgar Social Media.”
It said that, “OTT platforms must strictly adhere to the various provisions of applicable laws and the Code of Ethics prescribed under IT Rules, 2021 while publishing content on their platforms, including stricter adherence of the age based classification of content prescribed under the Code Ethics.”
“Further, Self-regulatory Bodies of OTT platforms are requested to take appropriate proactive action for violation of Code of Ethics by the platforms,” it added.
Under Part-III of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media, Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Code of Ethics for OTT platforms, requires OTT platforms not to transmit any content which is prohibited by law, undertake age-based classification of content, based on general guidelines provided in the Schedule to the Rules, implementation of access control mechanism for ‘A’ rated content restrict access to such content by a child, and also exercise due caution and discretion.
