New Rules for Digital, OTT Platforms Revolutionary, Enable Self-Regulation: Tandav Director Ali Abbas Zafar The government has f...

New Rules for Digital, OTT Platforms Revolutionary, Enable Self-Regulation: Tandav Director Ali Abbas Zafar

The government has finally brought out intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code, which will cover social media platforms, digital news portals as well OTT (over-the-top) platforms. In a country where millions of people are online on various portals, and new ones spring every day, these draft regulations clarify what was till now a grey area and enable content producers to judiciously self-regulate without impeding the creative boundaries.

In January, our show Tandav was released on an OTT platform. It was the fruit of our labour and we were anxious as to how it would be received, like any other film we make. However, once the show was aired, certain sections of society were offended with certain scenes in the show. At that time, we had to run from pillar to post to prevent an arrest. Had the guidelines been present then, it would have served a two-fold purpose: we would have been self-informed in advance as to what is permissible and what isn’t and secondly, once the show was in line with the guidelines, we would have not have had to run from pillar to post. That is why I whole-heatedly welcome these self-regulatory guidelines.