Popular streaming service Netflix on Thursday, 16 November, denied reports of it agreeing to censor its content in India.
The denial came after The Print, in a report citing government sources, said that Netflix agreed to self-regulation in a meeting on 25 October. Apart from Netflix, the meeting included representatives from I&B Ministry, 21st Century Fox, Intel Sat, AFNT India, Intel India, Google, Star TV India, Apple and US-India Business Council, The Print said.
The report suggested that Netflix, along with Hotstar, agreed that they would frame guidelines for self-regulation and even intimate the I&B Ministry about the same.
Regarding the meeting, a ministry official was quoted by The Print as saying:
“Yes, there was discussion of self-regulation, and Netflix and Hotstar agreed that they should regulate their content.”Ministry official, as quoted by The Print
However, refuting the report, Netflix issued a statement saying:
“The information quoted is inaccurate and entirely false. Netflix was never in this meeting.”Netflix statement
Meanwhile, according to a HuffPost report, a meeting actually took place between the I&B ministry and Netflix along with various other tech companies, on 30 October. However, “there was no concrete discussion or agreement on self-regulation”, the report said, citing an official.
The HuffPost report also cited three writers/filmmakers, who said that Netflix has not instructed them to regulate or censor any of the content they are involved in making as of now.
While Netflix has not engaged in any self-censorship for the shows on its platform in India, its competitor Amazon Prime has done so, with cuts being made to shows having explicit or sensitive content.
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