General GD Topics

Censorship of Web series – Pros & Cons

Garima Mittal
. Update: Jul 5, 2024 10:55 am
3

The Bombay HC has issued notice to the I&B Ministry, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Nagpur police commissioner and asked for their response, in regard to the PIL filed by Divya Ganeshprasad Gontia. The court has advised setting up of a pre-screening committee to regulate the movies and shows which are released directly on online platforms like Netflix & Hotstar. Thus it is clear that censorship for web series and content on digital medium is very much on the cards.

But online platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, AltBalaji, SonyLiv and others have signed self-censorship code, which prohibits signatories from showing any content that has been banned by Indian Courts. Amazon Prime Video, the streaming service of e-commerce giant has kept out of the code stating that the existing laws are adequate.

While the decision of probable censorship has aroused a mixed reaction on social media by Indian film industry and the general public, it is important to understand the pros and cons that would come along.

Table of Contents

Pros :-

Due to the advantage of wide reach, the web series and content on digital media is easily accessible to all. Children are at major disadvantage when they view content that is related to violence, strong language and sex.
In the past years people have filed legal complaints regarding the harsh content on digital platform and arguing for censorship on series and movies released on internet that have the potential to create bad influence.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has reported that the casual usage of sex and crass language in such web series is a bait to attract the audience. This raises a question if the online entertainment industry should be kept law free and what affects this would have on children.
Some people feel worried about the increasing foreign culture influence that web series and movies promote censorship will control this to some extent.

Cons :-

Producer Ritesh Sidhwani, who has produced series like “Inside Edge” and “Mirzapur”, believes that censorship will hamper the originality of the story. He said it the responsibility of the makers to take care of the content and depict only the reality.
People feel that by making the web series industry regulated the lawmakers will only be covering up for a reality that is widely evident in certain states.
The censorship norm is being criticised as people feel that it is curbing the freedom and creativity of Indian filmmakers, who are anyways at a disadvantaged position due to constraints on movie content.
People also feel that rather than censoring the content, it is more important to pay attention to the ratings that are provided. Moreover it is the responsibility of the audience to perceive the content in a respected manner.

Conclusion :-

It can definitely not be denied that streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime provide wide reach and help the Indian filmmakers in displaying their real creativity. But the concerns regarding content showing nudity, or engaging in violence stand valid too. Thus self-censorship appears as a good solution.

Also Read : Does Censor Board need to be reformed?

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Your Turn…

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Photo Credits: www.quotecatalog.com via Flickr, under CC 2.0.

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3 Comments

ROger, Jan 4, 2021 @ 12:07 pm Reply

censorship of web series in India is required because nowadays most of the web series show nudity, violence, and excessive use of slangs, which is destroying our culture and taking our society to darkness and its impact is clearly visible on students, using slangs became a part of their day to day conversations, they don’t even talk without using slags, slangs flooded on every social media app, they use slangs for their entertainment purpose and from where they learned it? they learned it from such web series, but I want to say that they can have fun even without using slangs. students are the future of our country and these web series are destroying them, a few filmmakers think that nudity, violence, slangs are just baits to attract the audience but there are few web series that does not shows any nudity, violence and neither uses slangs or least use of slangs yet those web series are too much loved by the audience,f so filmmakers should think of creating such content, a great story can also attract the audience, even they can go for science, fiction web series. as all these web series streams on online streaming platforms so it is accessible to everyone and when kids watch such web series, it impacts their mind, their thinking, and if they will grow with such thinking, then there are chances that they will commit crimes also. as the web series shows nudity, it arises sex desire in people, and when it reaches the peak, a few people lose control over themselves and commit crimes.
AMN, Oct 23, 2020 @ 1:48 pm Reply

Along with honest makers who say they want to show reality, there are those unscrupulous makers who benefit from the same open portal opportunity to broadcast next-to-anything contents online under the pretext of showing honest depiction of reality and that could range from any and every shady content to step just short of pornography as honest content.
Vinayak, Mar 3, 2020 @ 9:36 am Reply

Yes, it’s required to censor towards web series in India.
Why because, if they are showing good and true stories ok I agree for that but they more focus on sexual content, if they really want to show true stories make avoiding O er obscenes….