I&B ministry won't censor online video content, for now

A recent case against streaming platform Hotstar brings to fore the issue of censorship of content in online video services.

Hotstar, Star India's video streaming service, had recently started a monthly subscription service called Hotstar Premium. Priced at Rs 199 per month, the service incidentally had been launched with the premiere of HBO's Game of Thrones season 6, which was made available to stream on Hotstar minutes after the US screening ended. The interesting bit here. Was that unlike the censored version that is aired on television, Star India offered uncensored episodes of the show.

Though many streaming platforms reportedly conduct self-censorship for most of the free local content, premium paid international content is largely untouched. For instance, Hotstar has a 'cleaner' version of the 2015 film, Masaan, and not its 'international' version.

Currently, international shows on various over-the-top and streaming platforms are not under the purview of any kind of censorship. It all began a year ago, in fact, when Netflix entered the Indian market that Indian subscribers had access to uncensored content.

Now, news portal Medianama reports that a case was recently filed against Hotstar in the Delhi High Court alleging that the service was streaming 'soft porn', a claim that the service's parent company Star India has denied. The High Court has asked the ministry to look into these claims, indicating that online censorship regulations are in the radar. At least for now, the statement from the I&B ministry indicates otherwise, according to a response to an RTI application filed by a Medianama reporter.

In the application, the ministry was asked if it had the power to carry out censorship of TV shows and films distributed by services such as Hotstar and Netflix; and if not, whether the ministry was considering making rules that would allow them to do so. In their response, the ministry said that they do not have the power to censor any content online, and that they are "not pursuing the creation of a regulatory framework" that would allow them to have any online censorship powers.