Aditya N
Aditya N
The central government’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has banned 18 OTT platforms, including Uncut Adda, Dreams Films, and Prime Play. This decision was made due to the hosting of ‘obscene and vulgar’ content, including pornography, despite repeated warnings. Additionally, access to 19 websites, ten apps, and 57 social media accounts associated with these platforms has been blocked in India. These bans are a result of the prima facie violation of Sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act, Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Section 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has elucidated the rationale behind the prohibition imposed on OTT platforms. It has highlighted that a considerable amount of the content available on these platforms was deemed obscene and vulgar and presented women in a derogatory manner. This content depicted nudity and sexual activities in inappropriate scenarios, including relationships between teachers and students, as well as incestuous family relationships, among others. The I&B Ministry stated that the material contained suggestive references and, in some instances, extended portions of explicit sexual content that lacked any meaningful connection to themes or societal issues.
Regarding the reach of these OTT applications, the central government announced that one of these apps had garnered over 10 million downloads, while the other two had more than 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store. Additionally, the combined number of followers on these OTT platforms on social media exceeded 3.2 million users. As per the official statement, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has restricted access to 12 Facebook accounts, 17 Instagram accounts, 16 X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and 12 YouTube accounts.
