The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has been hold meetings with online streaming platforms to restrict ‘anti-national’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ content.
According to Economic Times, representatives of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) have been holding meetings with officials of online streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon to restrict ‘antinational’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ content on shows and urge them to show content that “represents real Indian culture and ethos.” An insider told the leading daily that RSS representatives have held over six such informal meetings in the last four months in New Delhi and Mumbai.
On the other hand, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar had recently said the government had sought suggestions from stakeholders on how to deal with the issue and the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal has scheduled a meeting on Friday to specifically discuss regulation and certification of content on online curated content providers (OCCPs) with stakeholders.
An RSS insider told the Economic Times, that “We reminded them about the Twitter case when the issue of blocking rightwing handles was raised by Anurag Thakur in a parliamentary committee and officials summoned. We just want them to be mindful of Indian sensibilities when they commission or select content and not go by merely what sells. We also suggested to involve more Indians when they scout for content for India.”
Even the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was informed about the issue in a meeting of office-bearers. The insider told th eleading daily, “He is concerned particularly about the way acts of lynching were portrayed in many shows, linking it to Hindu nationalists. It only helps evil forces to exploit the minority sentiment.”
However, on October 3, news agency PTI quoted union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar as saying that there should be some kind of regulation of OTT platforms on the lines of print and electronic media and films.
“I have sought suggestions on how to deal with this because there are regular feature films coming on OTT — good, bad and ugly. So how to deal with this, who should monitor, who should regulate?. There is no certification body for OTT platforms and likewise news portals also,” Javadekar was quoted as saying. In May, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Centre on an appeal to regulate content on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon Prime.
