Content creators' business impacted by police complaints and legal hurdles: IAMAI

Content creators and producers in India are facing a number of challenges, including the multiplicity of legislations and forums for filing complaints. A recent study public policy think tank, The Dialogue Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) found that these challenges are leading to compliance uncertainties, self-censorship, and unwarranted economic burden.

The impact assessment report recommends that the government simplify the regulatory framework and establish a single grievance redressal forum.

“Majority of the content creators and producers noted that the multiplicity of legislations and directives not just leads to compliance uncertainties but also raises questions around the authority of the bodies that formulate these policies,” said the report.

Multiple online curated content (OCC) platforms also pointed out that the grievance redressal forum prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021 must be the sole platform for filing complaints and all authorities must be prohibited to prescribe any other forums for this purpose.

As per findings of the report, a majority of the content creators and producers as well as many of the OCC platforms find the criminal liability associated with creative laws to be infeasible and leads to self-censorship and unwarranted economic burden.

“All the content creators, directors and producers were unanimous that the petty police complaints filed by individuals and groups to ban movies and online series is the most critical concern faced by them,” said the report.

Many producers and OCC platforms stressed that the creative industry invests an immense amount of executive hours and outsourcing costs at the self-certification stage to assess the feasibility of every content.

“Hence, the frequently reported instances of criminal complaints against directors and producers and demands for injunctions is nothing but an unreasonable restriction on their creative freedom and economic rights. Nine out of ten content creators, directors and producers noted that the petty complaints, multiplicity of forums for filing complaints and criminal sanctions under creative laws impacts their ease of doing business,” said the report.

The report also makes some policy recommendations. One of the significant recommendations mention building of express carve outs under the law for conditions including (a) various forms of legitimate free speech and expression such as satire, parody, etc. and (b) for the principles put forth through years of jurisprudence on objections to the grounds of obscenity, decency etc.

As per the report, “Autonomy and independence of the regulatory bodies must be ensured in every regulatory framework envisaged for the OCC sector and the Self-Regulatory Mechanism prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021 should be reformed to address the existing concerns and be made the exclusive forum for grievance redressal.” Other recommendations include- institutionalization of statutory remedies or access to appellate bodies for the OCC publishers, decriminalization of creative legislations to boost creative economy and artistic freedom and raising awareness regarding the existing grievance redressal process under the IT Rules, 2021.