Adult Content In Hotstar & Netflix Must Be Censored Before Publishing In India

In 2018, Sacred Games, a web series on Netflix, received a complaint on its content against the former prime minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi. This issue pointed out that India government should strictly control the online content. Besides, this February, a case of showing sexually explicit content on Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix will be judged. Reportedly, the case was proposed by the group Justice For Rights Foundation last year.

According to familiar sources told Reuters, Hotstar and competitor Netflix Inc are working out a plan based on the self-regulation guidelines of India government in developing online content, aimed at preventing similar censored cases re-occurring.

Although all the public content in India must be regulated by related certification bodies before being shown in public, online streaming content is somehow out of the government's hands. There's also a suggestion that all the content must be posted on specific platforms having a function of eliminating the illegal or sensitive contents like sexual activities, India's national flag's disrespect, or terrorism encouragement, written in an unofficial code.

Reportedly, Amazon Inc's Prime Video was unwilling to adopt the draft. It might show that the company doesn't want to eliminate sensitive content unless they received government's enforcement.

Subho Ray, the president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, revealed that the official code including some changes compared to the unofficial one will be published on Thursday.

Vikram Malhotra, Founder & CEO of Abundantia Entertainment whose some works with Amazon Prime, expressed his opinions on the changes, "It is a welcome move to form guidelines but in no manner should they be restrictive to expression or creative freedom."

However, according to reports in India Today, the three platforms including Alt Balaji, Hotstar, and Netflix have refused the censored policy though having been willing to sign a self-controlling Code of Best Practices.