A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking direction to the central government to set up a regulatory board to monitor and manage over-the-top (OTT) and streaming platforms in India. The petition argues that these platforms operate without the checks and balances imposed on traditional media, such as films and TV.

Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha, who filed the petition, said, “Unlike films screened in theatres, OTT content doesn’t undergo a certification process before release. This has led to a rise in explicit scenes, violence, substance abuse, and other harmful content, often without proper warnings.”

The petition says that although the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduced IT Rules 2021 to self-regulate OTT platforms, these regulations have proven to be inefficient. Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha said, “These platforms continue to exploit loopholes, putting out controversial contents unchecked, which has national security implications and promotes activities like gambling and drug abuse.”

The petition seeks to prevent harm before it happens by ensuring that there is a regulatory body to oversee content before it reaches the public, similar to the regulations in place for movies and TV, Jha added.

The OTT medium has become a tool for promoting substances prohibited in advertisements, such as gambling, liquor, drugs, and smoking, by exploiting regulatory loopholes, the petition alleges.

In the absence of any law or autonomous body governing digital content, the petition says that such contents are made available to the public at large without any filtering or screening by a statutory regulatory authority.

The petition states, “OTT/streaming and different digital media platforms have provided filmmakers and artists with a way to release content without worrying about obtaining clearance certificates for films and series from the censor board,” the petition says.

It further proposes that the regulatory board should be headed by an IAS officer at the secretary level and include members from different fields, including filmmaking, cinematographic, media, defence forces, legal, and education.

“The lack of a certification board for OTT platforms creates an uneven playing field between traditional media (cinemas and television) and digital streaming services. While traditional media is subjected to stringent regulations, OTT platforms operate in a largely unregulated environment, allowing them to bypass content restrictions that are mandatory for other media. This lack of regulatory parity is arbitrary and unjustifiable,” the petition adds.