Online streaming services have made their way to almost every country and due to the unique content on these apps has made them quite popular. This might be due to the factor that online streaming services do not have censorship restrictions regarding violence, language, and nudity. Recently in a survey, about 57 percent of people in India want the top platforms to introduce some kind of censorship. In the survey 27 percent, people do not want to get censorship on these platforms and 16 percent of people are still confused about this.
Many people in the country think that the content posted on the online streaming services is offensive and the content is not suitable for the public. That is why it is important to introduce censorship to these programs. The older people are more agreeable to the censorship than the younger ones.
Due to the introduction of censorship of the programs, the changes it might bring for the platform was asked, many people said that the quality of the content will be better and watched by more people. Some people tend to avoid these content due to abusive language or nudity.
Many people also said that due to the introduction of censorship it will show bad results for the online streaming services like Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. The piracy and illegal streaming of these services will increase up to 30 percent as the quality of the content will suffer due to the censorship.
People in India are divided on their opinion as some think the censorship will increase viewership while others think it will reduce the number of people to watch these products.
The Indian government is planning to regulate censorship on the OTT platforms after the direction from the Supreme Court.
Peter Beaumont is a senior reporter on the Guardian’s Global Development desk. He has reported extensively from conflict zones including Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East and is the author of The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict. Email: peter@thehearus.com
