look news india
New Delhi: The central government has taken major action against social media platforms for serving obscene content on the internet and has blocked 18 OTT streaming platforms. According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 19 websites, 10 apps and 57 social media accounts related to these 18 platforms have been banned in India.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur repeatedly urged not to propagate obscenity and abuse in the name of creative expression and asked various platforms to fulfill their responsibility of removing such content. On March 12, Thakur announced the removal of 18 OTT platforms publishing pornographic content. This decision has been taken by the Government of India in consultation with other ministries and experts as per the provisions of the Information Technology Act 2000.
The government said in its statement that the objectionable content presented on the platform portrayed women in a derogatory manner. This included relationships between teachers and students, unwanted family relationships, and sexually explicit material. Such content prima facie violates Sections 67 and 67A of the IT Act, Section 292 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986. Seven apps have been banned from Google Play Store and three apps from Apple Store. Among these, one app was downloaded more than one crore times. The other two apps were downloaded more than 5 million times. More than 32 lakh followers were found on various social media accounts of the respective OTT platforms.
