I&B Ministry blocks Pakistan-based OTT platform

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued directions to block the Pakistan-based Over-The-Top platform Vidly TV’s website, two mobile applications, four social media accounts, and one smart TV app.

The action follows the recent release of a web series titled ‘Sevak: The Confessions’ by the OTT platform, which was found to be detrimental to the country’s national security, integrity, and sovereignty, as well as India’s friendly relations with foreign states.

The Narendra Modi government claims that the three episodes of the web series that have already been broadcast jeopardise national security and public order.

In addition, the I&B Ministry believed that the web series was sponsored by Pakistan’s information operations apparatus because the first episode was released on November 26, the anniversary of the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai.

The web series showed an anti-India narrative on sensitive events such as Operation Blue Star, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the assassination of controversial Christian missionary Graham Staines, the Malegaon blasts, the Samjhauta Express blasts, the inter-state river water dispute over the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, and so on.

A Hindu priestess is seen instructing the Hindu children in one scene to one day “kill” Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs in order to rid the motherland of their “filthy” existence. There is a claim that Scheduled Castes are compelled to remain Hindus in another scene. It was demonstrated that Hindus attacked Sikhs during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 by abusing religious symbols. BusinessToday