Netflix is said to have committed to look at global best practices and come up with a solution to self-regulate after meeting Modi govt officials.
New Delhi: A day after ThePrint reported that Netflix had offered to self-regulate its content, sources privy to the streaming service’s business in India Friday confirmed that its representatives, along with other over-the-top (OTT) service providers, had met government officials last month and agreed to self-regulate.
The sources, however, claimed self-regulation was not the same as censorship and was something that had been put in place in other parts of the world. Self-regulation, they said, included practices such as introducing ratings and parental controls among others.
ThePrint had reported Thursday that representatives of Netflix and other OTT service providers such as Hotstar had met officials of the ministry of information and broadcasting, and agreed to “self-regulate content”.
Following an uproar from viewers, Netflix denied making such a commitment. “The information quoted is inaccurate and entirely false. Netflix was never in this meeting,” a statement from Netflix said.
Sources in the government, however, reconfirmed to ThePrint that Netflix representatives had met information and broadcasting ministry officials over the issue. The officials said that there had been two meetings — one on 25 October and another on 30 October and Netflix too confirmed that it was part of the 30 October meeting.
“They did agree to look at best practices across the world and come up with some solution,” a government official said.
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Government concerned by content on streaming services
Officials said the Narendra Modi government is “concerned” about uncensored content available on streaming services such as Netflix and Hotstar, and is looking for ways to regulate them.
The discussions with representatives of such services is a part of this process, they said.
“This is a matter of concern, and both the government and platforms such as Netflix and Hotstar are trying to find a way to develop some sort of code,” an official in the ministry of information & broadcasting told ThePrint.
“Now, two petitions have also been filed in courts, so they will have to do something,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official was referring to two petitions filed last month, one each in the high courts of Delhi and Bombay, seeking some manner of censorship for streaming services.
In April this year, the ministry had formed a committee, including representatives from various ministries, to draft regulations for digital media companies. “We had formed this committee for precisely this reason,” the official added.
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Services launch self-regulatory code
Several subscription video-on-demand services including Netflix have also announced the creation of a self-regulatory ‘Subscription Video-on-Demand Industry Content Code’ in ASEAN member-states in order “to safeguard consumer interests”.
OTT service providers like Netflix have gained popularity across the world and in India, which is particularly notorious for arbitrary censorship, but have been grappling with problems of regulatory uncertainty for a while now.