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Bengaluru: Netflix Reliance Jio and other streaming services may soon adopt a voluntary censorship code that would stop them from showing content that's banned by Indian courts, disrespects the national emblem and flag, outrages religious sentiments, promotes terrorism or violence against State and shows children in sexual acts, according to multiple sources.Video-on-demand (VOD) platforms see voluntary censorship as a preemptive move to avoid the Indian government imposing its own rules, which some players expect will be onerous. Amazon, Facebook and Google are unlikely to sign up for the code, fearing this move will set a "dangerous" precedent of regulating the internet and interfere with creative freedom, said one of the persons cited above.The code will most likely adopt a redressal mechanism that will allow viewers to send complaints if they judge the over-the-top (OTT) services to have violated it, according to people involved in the discussions. This may evolve into an adjudicatory body to resolve customer complaints.Other members in favour of the code are said to be Zee5, Times Internet, Eros Now and Alt Balaji, all of which have parent firms that also run traditional broadcast businesses. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is facilitating the process. Times Internet is the digital arm of the Times Group, which publishes ET.“Right now, the members are leaning towards adhering to the first model of sending complaints to OTT companies directly rather than setting up an adjudicatory body as content on all these platforms are generated differently, giving them varied control on it. Some are originals and some are licensed,” said a lawyer representing one of the OTT players at the IAMAI meetings.Those opposed to the move are of the opinion that it would lead to an unnecessarily nervous environment and validates the government’s point of view that the internet needs regulation, said one of the persons cited above. They feel the process has been swayed by companies that want OTT companies to be at a more level playing field with broadcasters.“They are applying the broadcast folly to the internet. The whole process has been opaque and closed-door. They have not included content creators in the discussions,” said another person who is part of the discussions. IAMAI president Subho Ray said the code is still a work in progress and no one has yet accepted or rejected it.OTT companies have their own internal censorship codes, which aren’t public. Many of these players, including Netflix and Amazon, have been criticised for preemptively censoring content. A similar self-censorship code exists in Southeast Asian nations, with Netflix, Fox (parent company of Hotstar) and Walt Disney as participants. The code states that the content on these platforms should be free from hate speech, hate crimes, pornography and other forms of inappropriate content.Google said YouTube, which it owns, has user-generated content and follows a post-review mechanism. It does not review content before it is uploaded.“We are a user-generated content platform and already have policies that prohibit inappropriate content,” a spokesperson said. “Videos flagged by users that they believe violate our community guidelines are reviewed and removed from the system. We also follow all applicable laws and act promptly to remove an offending video once notified.”MX Player, a VOD unit of Times Internet, said the code should only have guiding principles since each OTT platform has different business strategies and revenue models“The idea is to compile a set of industry-best practices to enable OTT platforms to curate content responsibly and strike a balance between creativity and cultural responsibility,” said MX Player CEO Karan Bedi.Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar and Facebook didn’t respond to queries. Eros Now declined to comment. Balaji Telefilms said one of the benefits of having a selfregulatory code is that it imposes voluntary discipline on every participating member and makes for a much more acceptable basis of functioning.“It’s not just the content that is changing with the times,” said Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sunil Lulla. “The self-regulatory guidelines will continuously evolve as well. If there are new things and experiences to be executed in the VOD/OTT space that one has to take into consideration.”Zee5 told ET it believes that self-regulation is the logical way forward for digital content and it is closely working with the authorities concerned and other industry players in establishing guidelines.