For the first time in India, a leading OTT app has been booked by police, for streaming adult content via their app.
Will this lead to more such cases? What about the censorship of content streamed by OTT apps?
It seems there is a huge gap between law and law enforcement here, especially for the online streaming apps.
Maharashtra Police Books AltBalaji For Streaming Adult Content
After a complaint was lodged, the Cyber Department of Maharashtra Police has lodged a case against AltBalaji app.
As per police, AltBalaji is streaming adult content, and this is harmful for society.
An officer of Maharashtra Police Cyber Cell said, “The videos uploaded on the OTT platforms and websites are extremely obscene, lascivious and have not been certified by any certifying agency. It is likely that the actors depicted in the videos in an obscene way have been exploited, lured or compelled to perform the obscene acts. It can have disastrous consequences on young minds and lead to erosion of dignity of women. Hence, legal action has been taken on perpetrators of such OTT platforms,”
The case by police was filed against 13 streaming services, several directors, actors and production houses.
We are not aware of the other streaming services against whom case has been booked by the police.
All the cases have been filed under various sections of Indian Penal Code, the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
Self-Regulation Not Working?
Although Govt of India has refused to regulate any online streaming app such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, AltBalaji and others, they have asked them to impose a self-regulation code for all their content.
And this was agreed by all the online streaming apps, that they will themselves censor content which is not appropriate.
But it seems that it’s not working now.
As per reported in September, Govt is not happy with the self-regulation code as promised by the OTT players, and can soon make a move to regulate the entire industry.
It would be interesting to see, how this case against AltBalaji progresses from here, since it will set a precedent for others.
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