MIB has taken action on 18 OTT platforms for content violations: Minister of State

MOS for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Loganathan Murugan, informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday that protocols have been put in place for curbing digital piracy

by e4m Staff
Published: Aug 3, 2024 9:16 AM | 2 min read

The government has taken action against 18 OTT platforms for violating content regulations, Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Loganathan Murugan, informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

In response to questions raised by members of the Upper House regarding digital piracy on OTT platforms, Murugan stated that protocols are in place to keep an eye on the “OTT materials”.

Spoke about the government's initiatives to protect the #OTT landscape, highlighting the Cinematography Amendment Act 2023, in a reply to a question regarding Digital Piracy at #RajyaSabha today.@MIB_India pic.twitter.com/F7YGpAhWrM
— Dr.L.Murugan (@Murugan_MoS) August 2, 2024

The minister further said that the government has no say in whether or not age-appropriate content is authenticated on OTT platforms beyond a point and hence self-certification in OTT has been introduced. Parental guidance and self-certification have been implemented for content classification, the Minister said.

Regarding piracy in cinema halls, the minister explained, “We recently brought the amendment in Cinema Amendment Act 2023 to protect the producers from piracy. In this, we have appointed one nodal officer in the central film board film certification office. In case of grievances, the nodal agents can be approached.”

Cinema theatre piracy, which was causing unauthorised reproduction of copyrighted content, has led to an annual loss of Rs 20,000 crore for the movie business and the OTT industry, it has been reported.

As far as OTT piracy is concerned, IT rules 2021 deals with copyright and trademark infringement of the other properties, said Murugan. The ethics code enumerates a three-tier mechanism.