I&B Ministry
Online media regulations: action shifts to IT Ministry from MIB
MUMBAI: If online media is readying the champagne to pop, then hold on to your exuberance. The government hasn’t given up its resolve to explore regulations for online media and content. It is only attempting to be on the right side of laid down rules and cut down on duplication of work.
In short, the main action will be shifting from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (Meity), while other things remain constant, which means the mandate will continue to be the same.
A government official admitted, without saying so in so many words, that as a Meity committee, set up earlier, has the mandate to explore regulations for online media to facilitate its expansion, MIB will work along with its counterparts bringing in more synergy.
The official insisted that the MIB committee, set up to explore regulations for online media in April 2018, is officially not being dissolved, but will work along with the Meity panel that comprises similar members.
The 10-member panel, constituted by the MIB headed by Smriti Irani, was criticized by experts on the ground that it was outside the jurisdiction of MIB to explore regulations for online media, including OTT services, as the matter fell within the ambit of Meity — something that MIB Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore had reiterated in Parliament too. A big criticism was that a panel formed to look into matters relating to online media didn’t have a single online player as a member.
When the MIB panel was announced it had as its members the following: MIB Secretary– Convener; Secretary, MeitY; Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs; Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs; Secretary, DIPP; CEO of MyGov and representatives of Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association, Indian Broadcasting Foundation, apart from representation from any other government organization or industry body deemed fit by the convener.
The terms of reference of the committee were:
i. To delineate the sphere of online information dissemination which needs to be brought under regulation, on the lines applicable to print and electronic media.
ii. To recommend appropriate policy formulation for online media / news portals and online content platforms including digital broadcasting which encompasses entertainment / infotainment and news/media aggregators keeping in mind the extant FDI norms, Programme & Advertising Code for TV Channels, norms circulated by PCI, code of ethics framed by NBA and norms prescribed by IBF, and
iii. To analyze the international scenario on such existing regulatory mechanisms with a view to incorporate the best practices.
As criticisms mounted, the government has done what it is best at doing — located another government panel with similar or near-similar mandate in the relevant Ministry (Meity) and shifted the onus of exploration of regulations for online media to the rightful department, thereby blunting critics.
Indiantelevision.com has always been of the opinion that rolling back of orders relating to fake news even if the Prime Minister’s Office intervened, and other such backtracking was akin to testing the waters for a bigger move to have norms for online media where content is continuously getting more edgy and experimental.
Meity Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who also happens to be the Law Minister, yesterday said that it was time to talk to online stakeholders to explore formulation of policies that would govern the online media, especially social media and free messaging platforms like WhatsApp that are being blamed for incidents of lynching in the country.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
