I & B minister Anurag Thakur says government is serious about complaints against content om OTT platforms

Mumbai| Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Sports and Youth Affairs, spoke to journalists during a press conference in Nagpur about the government receiving an increasing number of complaints about obscenity and abusive language on OTT platforms. In his brief speech, he stated that the government is taking this issue seriously.

Anurag Thakur delivered his message in Hindi, and it has been translated into English. Thakur stated, “Abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated. The government is serious about the complaints of increasing abusive and obscene content on OTT platforms. If there is a need to make any changes in the rules regarding this, the ministry is willing to consider that. These platforms were given freedom for creativity, not obscenity. And when someone crosses a limit, then abusing, rudeness in the name of creativity cannot be accepted at all. Whatever necessary action needs to be taken on this, the government will not back down from it.”

He further explained the censorship system and said, “The process so far is that the producer has to resolve the received complaints at the first level. 90 to 92 percent of the complaints are resolved by them by making necessary changes. The next level of complaint resolution is at the level of their association, where most of the complaints are resolved. At the last level it comes to the level of the government, where action is taken on the departmental committee level, according to the rules are in place. But somewhere complaints have started increasing in the last few days and the department is taking it very seriously. If there is a need to make a change we are willing to consider it.”

For the unversed, last year the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition seeking new system of OTT censorship.