“The news report is misinformed and the claims are false, misleading and based on misrepresented facts,” the ministry said.
Representation image
Taking note of a media report that the Centre has reached an “uneasy compromise” with OTT platforms over adding smoking warnings, the Union health ministry on Saturday termed it “false and misleading”.
“A news publication has recently made a claim that the Union government has reached an uneasy compromise with OTT streaming services on adding smoking warnings to their content. The report further claims that some platforms have chosen less intrusive warnings as a result of such an agreement.
“The news report is misinformed and the claims are false, misleading and based on misrepresented facts,” the ministry said.
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It further the report does not reflect the correct picture of the government’s commitment towards improving public health as one of its priority duties.
Considering public health a priority issue, the Centre has extended the COTP (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) film rules to OTT (over-the-top). The OTT Rules 2023 became operative from September 1, it said.
Under these rules, all OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar, Jio Cinema, Sony LIV, ALTBalaji, Voot, among others, have to display anti- tobacco health spots, anti- tobacco health warning as a prominent static message and audio-visual disclaimer on the ill-effect of tobacco use as prescribed in the rules, the statement said.
The ministry said all the OTT platforms are required to strictly comply with the provision of the OTT Rules 2023.
There is no compromise with the rules and action will be initiated by the government for any non-compliance with the OTT Rules 2023, it added.
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