The central government has directed to post anti-tobacco warnings on OTT platforms. India has become the first country to pass such a rule.
Today, May 31, is World No Tobacco Day. In this background, the central government has issued this notification. The Union Health Ministry has framed new rules for anti-tobacco warnings on OTT platforms after discussions with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and other stakeholders. Movies, series released on OTT platforms often show scenes of smoking and drinking. This can lead to the spread of smoking and alcohol consumption. The central government has taken a big step to prevent this. The central government has directed to provide anti-tobacco warnings on OTT platforms. The center has also warned to take action against the concerned manufacturers if they do not do so. India has become the first country to pass such a rule.
The rules are: Producers of over-the-top content for platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar have been mandated to display at least 30 seconds of anti-tobacco health warnings at the beginning and middle of the program. They are also required to display an anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent static message at the bottom of the screen when tobacco products or their use are displayed during the program. Apart from these warnings, an audio-visual disclaimer of at least 20 seconds must also be displayed. This disclaimer will be displayed at the beginning and middle of the program, ANI reported quoting sources.
“If the publisher of online curated content fails to comply with the provisions, an inter-ministerial committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, on its own or on complaint, will take action and after identifying the publisher of online curated content, such will issue a notice giving reasonable opportunity to explain the failure and make suitable changes in the content”, the notification said.
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