India bans Pakistan-based OTT Platform Vidly TV

New Delhi: The Government on Monday issued an order to ban Pakistan-based OTT Platform Vidly TV after the streaming of web series "Sevak: The Confessions", said senior Adviser, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta.

"Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, using emergency powers under IT Rules 2021, has issued directions on December 12, 2022 for the immediate blocking of the website, two mobile apps, four social media accounts, and one smart TV app of Pakistan-based OTT Platform Vidly TV," Gupta said in a Twitter post.

He said Government's action against Pakistan-based Vidly TV follows the web series "Sevak: The Confessions" which was "determined to be detrimental to national security, sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, and public order in the country." "Action against Pakistan-based Vidly TV follows the assessment that the provocative and wholly untrue web-series "Sevak" was sponsored by Pakistan's info ops apparatus. The first of the three episodes was released on November 26, 2022, the anniversary of Pakistani terror attacks on Mumbai in 2008," Gupta said.

In June last year, India banned 59 Chinese mobile applications including the widely-used social media platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, and Helo keeping in view the threat to the nation's sovereignty and security.

The majority of the apps banned in the June 29 order were red-flagged by intelligence agencies over concerns that they were collecting user data and possibly also sending them "outside".