Centre issues guidelines for OTT and social media platforms

Seeking to establish a soft touch regulatory framework and hold OTT platforms and social media platforms accountable, the Centre released a set of guidelines on Thursday. Big Tech platforms will be required to set up stronger grievance redressal mechanisms, and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement in India.

FOr OTT platforms, the government has established a three-level grievance redressal mechanism: self-regulation by the publishers, self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers, and an oversight mechanism.

Further, Over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, YouTube, etc wil be required to self-classify their content into five categories based on age suitability.

The idea behing these guidelines is to provide ordinary users of digital platforms to seek redressal for their grievances and command accountability in case of infringement of rights.

These will also enable producers to self-regulate without impeding the creative boundaries.

It is expected that most of these platforms will now change their business models to be in sync with the new guidelines.

The response from the media fraternity was a mixed one. While some welcomed these guidelines, others said caution is needed regarding their implementation.

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was important that social media users be given a forum to raise their grievances against “the misuse and abuse” of such platforms.