New Delhi, July 4 (IANS). The central government has taken a strict stance on the increasing piracy of films and OTT content in the country. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued a notice to messaging platform Telegram directing it to take immediate effective action against the spread of pirated films and OTT content.
According to sources, the ministry has asked Telegram to take immediate steps to remove pirated content available on its platform and submit a detailed report of the action taken in this regard to the government within 15 days.
The government believes that such piracy causes huge losses to India’s rapidly growing creator economy, film industry, broadcasters, OTT platforms, film producers and distributors. Keeping this in mind, the government has taken this step to protect copyrighted material and prevent the spread of illegal content on digital platforms.
Sources say that the government wants Telegram to ensure strict adherence to copyright rules on its platform and effectively stop movies, web series and other digital content from being shared illegally.
Even before this, Telegram has been the target of government and regulatory agencies on many matters. In the past few months, the platform had come under scrutiny over concerns such as fraud, dissemination of sensitive information through fake names and spreading misleading content.
In this sequence, the government had also banned Telegram and its related web services for a week till June 22. The decision was taken in view of the failure of the platform to stop the alleged question paper leak of NEET medical entrance exam, spread of misleading material related to the exam and other alleged fraudulent activities.
However, Telegram services were later restored in India after the ban was lifted.
–IANS
VKU/AS
