New Delhi: An NGO led by former data commissioner Uday Mahurkar on Tuesday called for a ban on OTT platforms and social media sites, alleging that such platforms spread sexually particular and obscene content.
The Save Culture Save Bharat Foundation, promoted through Mahurkar, claimed that the “illegal acts” of OTT platforms and social media threaten to destroy India’s character and cultural heritage.
The base also demanded that the upcoming Digital India bill include provisions without delay prohibiting any spread and dissemination of “sexually perverted content” through any platform.
Mahurkar needs the government to enact an ethics law for all audiovisual platforms, establish a national content authority, and amend the IT Act to link access to online content with Aadhaar to make India the first country in the world without pornographic content.
In a press conference, Mahurkar accused OTT and social media platforms of allowing simple or pornographic attire for millions of Indian children.
“In the post-Covid era, young people are forced to use mobile devices for educational purposes, which exposes them to obscene content from X and Netflix. Any pornography on an adult’s mobile phone is also available to their young people,” he said.
Mahurkar said the government’s 2021 IT regulations were useless and useless in policing OTT platforms, which have representatives on the Digital Publishers Content Complaints Council, which aims to respond to public complaints.
He said the government deserves to include provisions in the Digital India Bill to ban content providers and aggregators if they do not broadcast pornographic content.