IAMAI Writes To Health Ministry Against OTT Anti-Tobacco Warning Norms

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has reportedly written to the Union Ministry of Health, stating that the new anti-tobacco warning norms for over-the-top (OTT) content platforms would be impossible to implement and will impinge on the content creators’ freedom of expression.

The industry body, which also represents several major Indian startups and global tech giants, stated that implementing these anti-tobacco warnings norms across OTT platforms was practically impossible.

The amount of multilingual content on platforms “is very high … there is a practical impossibility associated with including such warnings across content,” the letter by the IAMAI stated, Reuters reported.

The publication added that the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney (all of which are represented by IAMAI in India), along with JioCinema and Viacom18, were part of a private discussion last week to consider pushback options, including a legal challenge.

OTT platforms reportedly noted that it was the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) that held sway over OTT platforms, not the health ministry. At the meeting, OTT giant Netflix was said to have contended that the new mandates would ‘hit customer experience’ and push production houses to block their content in the country.

The executives at these platforms are worried that the rules would require the editing of millions of hours of Indian and Hollywood content should they be implemented, which would also entail heavy costs.

Further, IAMAI said the ‘disruptions’ caused by such warnings were problematic for creators that put in considerable investments.

In the letter, the IAMAI has asked the health ministry to revisit the rules, citing a survey that showed viewers being indifferent to depictions of smoking on streaming platforms. Content descriptors, which warn users with the label “smoking” in a video alongside its title at the start, were more effective, the industry body added.

The move comes after the health ministry ordered all streaming platforms to insert static health warnings during each smoking scene in their content within three months in May.

The ministry also stated that the streaming platforms have to add at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each piece of content.

To recap, scenes in Indian films and on TV involving smoking and alcohol require health warnings under the law, but there were no regulations for OTT so far.

On the flip side, activists have welcomed the new regulations, saying it would discourage smoking in a country where tobacco kills 1.3 Mn people each year.

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