Tough action to be taken on ‘vulgarity’ on OTT: Anurag Thakur

Nagpur: Taking a tough stand on complaints against content on OTT platforms, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday said vulgarity and abusive language was not acceptable in the name of creativity.

Addressing a press conference here, Thakur said the government had taken a serious view on complaints of vulgarity and abusive language in content on OTT platforms and will not hesitate to take tough action to stop this trend.

“These platforms were given freedom for creativity and not for obscenity and when one crosses the limit, then hurling abuses in the name of creativity cannot be accepted at all,” Thakur said.

“If there is a need to change the rules, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will not hesitate. It will take tough action to stop vulgarity and abusive language,” the minister said.

In January, Thakur had batted for creative autonomy and said adequate safeguards were in place to monitor content on OTT platforms.

“Creativity should not be reined in, it should have autonomy. But it should not be too much that anything can be shown. We have kept adequate provisions and till date they are working fine,” Thakur had said on January 15 while participating in the 75th anniversary celebrations of ‘Panchajanya’ weekly, the RSS mouthpiece.

On Sunday, Thakur said there was a three-stage mechanism to deal with content on OTT platforms.

“As per the current procedure, producers have to address complaints about the content first and then they go to their association. When a complaint reaches the government (I&B department), strict action is taken as per rules,” he said.