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Indian government attempting to bring online news portals, content providers under Information and Broadcasting Ministry
New Delhi: The Indian government is all set to bring the online news portals and content providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, media reports said on Wednesday.
The notification, signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, was issued on Monday. The government regulations also apply to news on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, reports NDTV.
Films, audio-visuals, and news and current affairs content on online platforms will come under the domain of the ministry, reports the Indian news channel.
So far, there was no law or even autonomous body to govern the digital contents.
People familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times that the order is the outcome of an exercise that had been started in the government some time back and isn’t directly linked to the petition before the Supreme Court.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ordered for the change in the I&B ministry’s powers on May 30,” a senior government functionary told the newspaper.
He said the government had been receiving complaints about unregulated, sexually-explicit, vulgar and legally restricted content being put out by the OTT platforms and others.
“But there was no mechanism to redress the grievances that people had,” the functionary told the newspaper.
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