No censorship of content on OTT platforms, clarifies govt

Clarifying the recently announced rules for the OTT (Over The Top) platforms by the central government, Secretary in Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Amit Khare, on February 26 said that there is no censorship for content released on OTT platforms like films, but self-classification will be done by the respective platforms. "There is no censorship (in OTT platforms) like films. There is self-classification by concerned platform whether it's universal or +7 years or +13 years or +16 years or it has adult content.

Idea is that citizen should make informed choice.

The benchmark that we have kept about age is an international practice.

Unlike the films where the classification is done by CBFC, here the classification will be done by the platforms but they will inform that it is as per the age criteria," explained Khare.