Regulating Over the Top Platforms

Union government has brought Over the Top (OTT) platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and others, under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry)

• February, 2020, IAMAI released a ‘Code for Self-Regulation of Online Curated Content Providers’ signed by 15 digital platforms
• The code had guidelines regarding Classification of Content, Parental and/or Access Control, Age Classification/Maturity Ratings etc. and set up a two-tier Complaint Redressal mechanism-

Need of regulating OTT platforms

• Rapid growth in OTT industry: India is world’s fastest growing OTT market, and is set to world’s sixth-largest by 2024. The Indian OTT market is set to reach Rs 237.86 billion by FY25, from Rs 42.50 billion in FY19
• Lack of oversight: at present no law or autonomous body governing digital content or OTT platforms.
• Receipt of several complaints from the public: Several PILs have been filed in courts across the country underlining the concern and need to regulate online content
• Concerns regarding objectionable content: Without appropriate regulation, potentially used for spreading fake news and hate speech and publish obscene or violent content.
• Parity in treatment of content: The film industry requires a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), digital content on OTT platforms is made available to the public at large without any filter or screening.

Arguments against Regulation of OTT platforms

• Fears of a censorship regime.
• No need of additional regulations: existence of statutory provisions, such as IT Act etc. already present.
• Freedom to consume content: OCCP is pull content and hence users exercise substantial choice in the content they want to view.
• Growth in Indian film industry: benefiting small-scale content producers and making regional films available around the country as well as globally
• Excessive regulation might put Indian content creators at a disadvantage when competing on world stage.
• Vast amount of content: originating from all across the world thus technologically not feasible to censor/block the content.

Way Forward

• Model combining state censorship and self regulation: A multi-stakeholder approach to self-regulation that safeguards the creative freedom of content creators
• Establishing global ratings system: for content and quotas for indigenous content
• Independent mechanism for complaints redressal: Autonomous organization
• Formulating broad guidelines: that cover principles laid in statutes like The Information Technology Act, 2000, Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, Copyright Act, 1957 etc., to aid OTT platforms in self regulating its content.

Self Regulation of media platforms in India

• In Indian television broadcasting content is guided by self-regulating bodies such as the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council and the News Broadcasting Standards Authority.

Benefits of Self Regulation

• Promotes standards that advance media’s credibility with the public
• Develops confidence in the public that free media is not irresponsible while protecting the rights of journalists/producers to be independent
• Inculcates a professional culture to be judged for mistakes not by those in power but by colleagues.
• Lessens pressure on the judiciary if violations of personal rights by the press are corrected with satisfaction by self-regulatory bodies.

Issues in self regulation:

• Difficult to arrive at a regulatory consensus that is acceptable to all stakeholders.
• Toothless in nature: due to absence of an independent enforcement mechanism.
• Open to interpretations: Self regulatory codes can be interpreted differently by different platforms.
• Self censorship: might not factor in the diversity of content on the internet and can lead to self censorship internally among platforms to avoid scrutiny.