Centre directs Home Secretary to take action on menace of rising obscene content on OTT platform

Centre has asked Home Secretary to take needful attention on the menace of rising perverted obscene content on OTT and Bollywood that allegedly threatens to destroy children and the nation.

"Thanks to mrudrabha for taking initiative. Thanks to @UdayMahurkar ji for #SaveCultureSaveNation mission whose research on perverted content has been shared with Rashtrapati Bhavan. Let us all join this Swachhta Yajna", gems of bollywood wrote in a Twitter post.

Honorable @rashtrapatibhvn has asked Home Secretary to take needful attention on the following:
1. Justice for #SushantSinghRajput𓃵
2. The menace of rising perverted obscene content on OTT and #Bollywood that threatens to destroy our children and nation

Thanks to @imrudrabha… pic.twitter.com/brI0FPgyQc

— Gems of Bollywood बॉलीवुड के रत्न (@GemsOfBollywood) May 12, 2023

"OTT platforms are currently regulated by no government agency on the lines of Central Board of Film Certification that regulates public exhibition of feature films. This is despite the fact that international players in OTT entered the Indian markets seven years ago, in 2015. Even for television, there is the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1955, but currently there is no regulatory authority for OTT content", the team gems of Bollywood wrote in a letter to the president of India.

"The Central Board of Film Certification has become outdated in dealing with restricting of viewing of the content to its intended audience. The CBFC was formed and its guidelines were laid out at a time when the audience could be physically restricted from viewing films that were screened in theatres. If a film was given, say, an A-certification (restricted to adult audience), the ticket-checker could physically screen the audience before they say down for watching the content. Today, we are dealing with a phenomenon where the content is dreamed directly on mobile phones through internet, making the certification redundant. There is no ticket checker-like gatekeeper anymore", they further wrote.

"OTT are earning from India but not adhering to Indian sensibilities and interests Most players in the Indian market of OTT platforms are from abroad such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+Hotstar. Although these platforms do business in and earn from India, no thought is given to whether the content they stream goes against our cultural sensibilities and rational interest". 

"A glaring example of this is that for a long time, Netflix was streaming in India a blatant anti-India film produced in Pakistan, which showed India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in a bad light and promoted conversion of all Indians to the religion followed by an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis. It was only after authors of this report highlighted the same on social media that the content was removed from India by Netflix. We do not yet know if and how much content of similar nature continues to be streamed in India by foreign players in OTT", Gems of Bollywoord team members wrote.