India’s new rules requiring streaming platforms to show health warnings before and during shows with smoking or tobacco products shown are “onerous” and a “harassment.”
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), representing Netflix, Amazon, and Disney, informed the government that its new cigarette warning regulations are impossible for streaming giants to implement and will “throttle creativity and artistic expression.”
Last month the Indian government announced new guidelines under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Amendment Rules 2023 requiring streaming platforms to insert prominent, static health warnings during scenes showing smoking or tobacco products as well as at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each program. The changes should be implemented within three months.
In a recent closed-door meeting executives from the three steaming giants as well as Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema streaming platform considered pushback options which included a legal challenge. During the discussion the executives worried that the rules will negatively affect user experience and force production firms to censor their content, requiring editing of millions of hours of Indian and Hollywood content.
Currently, health warnings are required for all scenes with smoking and alcohol drinking in movies shown in Indian theaters and on television, but there were no rules governing streaming platforms, whose content is becoming increasingly popular.
In its letter to the government, IAMAI asked the health ministry to revisit the “onerous” rules. IAMAI suggested that content descriptors warning users with a “smoking” label in a video alongside its title at the start would be more effective.
Talking to Al Jazeera, Dylan Mohan Gray, a documentary filmmaker, compared the new rules to “harassment”, adding that murder, war, and extremely violent crime scenes were not regulated in the same way. “Smoking, which though certainly a serious public health problem, is both legal and a massive source of government revenue in this country,” he said.