Govt to tighten grip on OTT content with fresh guidelines around obscenity

New Delhi: The government is finalising new guidelines aimed at curbing the depiction of obscenity and profanity in OTT content, as per reports.

The forthcoming guidelines, as reported, aim to reduce profanity by encouraging the use of beeping or other methods to obscure profane language, unless integral to the narrative and justified artistically.

The guidelines will also suggest blurring explicit scenes or violent scenes, aiming to make them less graphic.

Producers might need to submit affidavits to confirm adherence to these guidelines, ensuring compliance from the onset of production.

The backdrop to these guidelines was set earlier in the year when the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) took stringent action against several OTT platforms for streaming content deemed excessively vulgar. 

While a segment of the public welcomes these guidelines, seeing them as a step towards protecting cultural sensitivities and family viewing, others fear it might pave the way for censorship, reducing the diversity of content available on OTT platforms.