Around 2,400 news websites and video streaming platforms have sent in details of their company and operations to the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry since February last year when the Narendra Modi government announced new rules to regulate digital media, News18.com has learnt.
Of them, as many as 1,836 are standalone digital news publishers, while the others are present in other mediums as well. Many of them are from different regional media. As many as 51 of them are OTT platforms operating within the country.
Sources in the government said a deadline of 15 days was fixed initially when the I&B Ministry sought information through a public notice from all digital media platforms in May last year under Rule 18 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The deadline was subsequently extended for the benefit of several smaller and regional players who would not have been aware of the rules, sources added.
This does not mean prior registration of the publishers with the ministry, but furnishing of certain information such as a company’s grievance redressal officers in India, the self-regulating body it is associated to, its board of directors, incorporation date and since when it started operating as a digital news publisher.
Dip in Grievances Against Digital Content
As per industry sources, the number of complaints related to online news and entertainment content filed with the I&B Ministry have dipped substantially to around 50 a month after the digital media rules came into effect. These few complaints received by the government are sent to the publishers to be resolved at their level as part of the first tier of the grievance redressal mechanism.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, had proposed a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism for digital content.
The first tier is at the level of the publisher, the second at the level of an industry self-regulatory body and third at the level of the government — either on the recommendation of an interdepartmental body or by the I&B Secretary under Rule 16 of the IT Rules, in case of an emergency.
While the digital media rules continue to be contested in various courts, five industry-level self-regulatory bodies have been already set up to decide on any complaint on digital content unresolved at the publishers’ level. The government is yet to release the SOP to further clarify various aspects of the IT Rules.
As per the sources quoted above, just two or three complaints on OTT content had reached the self-regulatory bodies. No grievance has reached tier III and no IDC meeting has been held to decide on grievances escalated from self-regulating bodies as most of them have been resolved at the level of the publishers.
Sources in the government had earlier said that the majority of the large platforms have been very compliant to the new rules.
As reported by News18.com earlier this month, every ministry will also appoint nodal officer to identify any digital news or OTT content that might be “unlawful” and flag them to the I&B Ministry for blocking.
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