It’s Official: No Official Censor on OTT Content!

Over the recent times, there has been a lot of debate and discussion happening about the OTT Content and the censorship of the same. As the central government raised concerns about the language and visual storytelling that’s used by developers in these OTT shows and the calls for regulation grew rapidly. 

While the central government didn’t actively pursue the censorship to the fullest, there were times when it was reported that the entire OTT library could come under the CBFC jurisdiction. 

But the latest developments are suggesting the opposite as the CBFC has officially communicated that they wouldn’t be certifying or examining the content on OTT. 

It has been communicated that the OTT content is regulated under the provisions of Part III of the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021. The Code of Ethics requires OTT platforms to avoid publishing content prohibited by law and undertake age-based classification of content as per the guidelines in the Rules.

These Rules also outline a three-tier institutional mechanism for ensuring adherence to content-related norms and for addressing public grievances.

In accordance with this, the CBFC has passed three levels of regulations to OTT Content. 

Level I: Self-regulation by the publishers

Level II: Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers

Level III: Oversight mechanism by the Central Government.

It is now the responsibility of the publishers to make sure that the content that they stream in Indian platforms with the local censorship standards. Failure to do so will hold the publisher responsible for the repercussions of the Content.