No plans to regulate OTT platforms, yet

TRAI met up with the over-the-top (OTT) platforms including WhatsApp, Telegram, Meta and Google on July 3, 2023. The regulator has been interacting regularly with the industry to expand its efforts to stop spam calls, messages and phishing.

The meeting concluded with, there is as yet no requirement to regulate the apps or take any other measures. The OTT platforms will on their own accord take measures to curb phishing and spam.

And these meetings with the regulator and the OTT platform reps will be done regularly.

Apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal are planned to come under the ambit of the Telecom Bill. The Bill, once released is expected to affect the apps like Whatsapp, Zoom, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, and Google Duo, which provide calling and messaging services. As they may soon require licenses to operate in India. “Once this Bill comes into effect the cyber frauds are expected to come down,” Ashwini Vaishnaw Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology had remarked.

CT Bureau