Netflix and Amazon Are Facing Trouble with Censorship Threat In India
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The Indian government is considering potential censorship on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon prime according to Reuters.
Recently popular online streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon are facing difficulty as the Indian government is planning censorship on content on these platforms.
The government is now highly concerned as many court cases and complaints are filed to the police in recent past months complaining that some content was offensive and highlighting blasphemy; said the government official with knowledge of deliberations.
The rising concerns for forthcoming censorship were the cue for Netflix and Hotstar in India to sign a self-regulation code in January 2019 but Amazon did not feel to sign up for this as according to them the current laws were passable.
According to one government official, self-regulation are different for all which is a matter of concern but the directions are very much lucid and need to find a way to address the problem.
Netflix India’s very first original production “Sacred Games”, already faced a court challenge last year due to hyper use of profanity and offensive remarks on former prime minister but later the filed case was brushed off.
These issues have raised attention subsequently within the government officials and elicited meetings between India’s Information & Broadcasting and IT ministries to bring about some changes to have acceptable regulatory frameworks.
The government may go against some regulations but is not so harsh, other plausible options are explored as well.
A self-regulation code is introduced without government interference where a government- monitored code requires mentioned platforms to have content approval beforehand.
The ministry did not give a prompt reply on this yet. The government is also disturbed to see the different manner of appearance of some content on different platforms. Smoking scenes in Bollywood movies carry a mandatory anti-tobacco textual warning which sometimes is missing on Amazon and Netflix in India.
Prasanto Roy, a New Delhi technology policy analyst adviser of global tech companies, opines that it will be a massive big-budget and time occupying exercise to make all the global content more presentable and acceptable for the Indian audience.
Netflix and Amazon are doing everything to beat their rivals in India by making more local original content to be on the top list and the increasing use of internet and smartphones suffice the demands.
Netflix expected to gain its next 100 million subscribers last year and thus has come up with a new plan for Netflix users on mobile for rs.199 per month which is half of their previous package of rs.499 per month.
So far the authority of Netflix India is very much satisfied with the result of its newly launched plan for mobile users and looking forward to extending it in other markets as well.
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