Centre Cracks Down On Telegram Over Pirated Films, OTT Content, Issues Takedown Notice

The central government has served a notice to popular messaging app Telegram over the widespread piracy of films, OTT content and other audio-visual material through its platform. Issuing the notice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting sought an Action Taken Report from Telegram within 15 days.The government action is aimed at protecting India's creator economy and the film industry, along with broadcasters, OTT platforms, producers and distributors.According to news agency PTI, it is learnt that the government has told Telegram, which was temporarily blocked in India in June as a precautionary measure to prevent any paper leak during the NEET re-examination, that copyright infringement is not merely a civil violation, but also a criminal

offence under the Copyright Act, 1957, and the Cinematograph Act, 1952."The Ministry has made it clear that Telegram cannot merely wait for the government to identify each piracy channel one by one. A purely reactive, channel-by-channel takedown approach may not be enough to demonstrate due diligence by the platform, as required under the IT Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, 2021," government officials were quoted as saying.

Centre's Notice To Telegram

The ministry has also sought details of Telegram's grievance redressal mechanism for producers, OTT platforms and law enforcement agencies, PTI reported citing sources. Telegram has been reminded that, as an intermediary, it is required to observe due diligence under the IT Act and the IT Rules, they added."The Government has made it clear that the continued availability of pirated content, evasive compliance, or an incomplete response may invite further examination and action under the applicable legal framework. The action has been taken to protect India's creator economy, film industry, broadcasters, OTT platforms, producers, and distributors," an official added.

Govt's Action Against Meta

The notice to Telegram came in view of the Centre's recent regulatory action against Meta.Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a notice to Meta over its planned username feature on WhatsApp. Later in the week, the centre also decided to summon the company over Instagram ads allegedly promoting child sexual abuse material.(With agency inputs)