NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday issued a notice to Telegram after finding that copyrighted content was available on more than 3,000 channels on the cloud-based social media and instant messaging service. The ministry directed the social media intermediary under the Information Technology Act, 2000 to remove pirated content from its platform.
According to sources, the action follows complaints received from various over-the-top platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video and others about the availability of large-scale piracy of copyrighted content on Telegram.
“The available content-- hosted, shared, and distributed--on Telegram is owned by or licensed to certain content owners, OTT platforms and producers without authorisation in violation of the Copyright Act, 1957,” sources added.
Based on the complaints and examination of the matter, 3,142 Telegram channels were identified for distributing pirated content including films and OTT content.
“The intermediary Telegram has been notified to remove and disable access to the concerned Telegram channels including all of their content within three hours of the issue of this communication without vitiating the evidence in any manner… Along with the notification, the ministry has also provided the list of Telegram channels and content including films, television serials and OTT series available on them,” said sources.
Telegram is allegedly being misused and has become a major platform for accessing and sharing copyrighted content without authorisation, where pirated films, series and illegal content are being widely distributed.
Last month, the ministry blocked five “obscene” OTT platforms for publishing obscene, vulgar and pornographic content. The digital services that were restricted are MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu.
The nature of content available on these platforms was found to contain sexual innuendos in violation of Section 67A of the IT Act and, in some cases, videos comprising long portions of sexually explicit scenes involving nudity, thereby being pornographic in nature.
Earlier in December, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a strict advisory asking social media platforms and intermediaries to proactively remove obscene, vulgar, pornographic and paedophilic content.