Uh-oh, itna sannata kyun hai bhai?

I first came across the term Overton Window late 2020 sitting on a couple of news channel debates to do with the governmentrsquos overt need to censor content in particular of subscriberbased web platforms mdash Netflix Amazon etc Or OTTs as streaming services are called in IndiaThe statersquos carrot and stick policy to control most discourses debates and news on Indian television is by now laughably legendary Even by those standards it seemed odd that there were a group of TVfilm actors including a news anchor almost actively demanding government censorship on themselvesWho does curbs on speech and expression in general affect the most Those who make a living from it first Namely artistes and journalists foremost The Overton Window roughly relates to introducing a farout political thoughtpolicy in this case govt censorship in the public domain Softly test and expand the shadecard of what is acceptable to people And cement it thenceThe news panelists were doing this job with much gusto Although they hadnrsquot been briefed well on the reasoning for state censorship mdash they were fumbling all over the place with itIn a matter of months to the surprise of no one the government put out its set of rules and guidelines to control Internet in India The number of pages of jargon demarcated between censorship of social media content under IT ministry and online news plus OTTs bizarrely clubbed as one under Ministry of IampB would have confused mostThe reasoning for new ruleslaws unilaterally imposed without consent of parliament was a demand expressed by civil society parents including courts and the parliament itselfThe minister held that the OTTs had been repeatedly asked to selfregulate but they hadnrsquot Sure theyrsquod probably drawn up their own guidelines he casually conceded but it didnrsquot involve any external monitoring But hey isnrsquot that what we mean by selfregulationWhich is also what the government wrote in its press release its rules were attempting to achieve mdash besides being ldquoprogressive liberal and contemporaneousrdquo The background to these rules refers to sexually alarmistdeviant content like rape child pornography and the menace of fake newsThe foreground concerns committees and departments commissions and reports as if cops and courts donrsquot exist I see clueless employees of Internet firms circling around government offices all daySince no OTT subscriber I know has patiently been through the said documents herersquos the chronology of what selfregulation as we understand it now means The government has a grievance portal for OTTs also for online news where you can lodge a complaintFor Having consumed something that to start with no one ever forced you to mdash theyrsquore not even free to air This is besides a resident grievance officer on every OTT platform who must accept your grouse within 24 hoursAction must be taken within 15 days What if ignoring your complaint go watch something else or make your own to counter what you have is the response You approach a selfregulatory body headed by a retired SupremeHigh Court judge appointed from a panel set up by the government itselfWhat next A meeting every two months thereafter of reps from ministries of IampB women amp child development law justice home external affairs defence electronics amp IThellip Woah Net result Censorblock content obviouslySure these rules seem heavily skewed in favour of a randorsquos right to take offence over a usually silent majorityrsquos right to consume what they like causing harm to no one mdash just because they didnrsquot complain against a complainant perhaps And of course the hardworking creatorsrsquo right to createOver everything else itrsquos essentially all about whether the government alone agrees with a particular grouse Irsquom not even getting into social media and their new governing rulesWithout which Irsquom told threefourths of takedown notices on Facebook have anyway come from governments of India and Turkey The latter one can sense is a democracy mdash but only when it comes to voting not much else otherwise least of all oppositiondissentSo how come no one is complaining over a looming litany of complaints given the skewed set of lsquoselfregulatoryrsquo guidelines The entertainmentcreative industry heavyweightsguilds have largely gone silentAre they measurably satisfied with what the government rules mercifully donrsquot specify Which is an ancient Hays Code from 1930s Hollywood expressly prohibiting nudity ridicule of religion immoral standards of life etc Or do they believe the Indian legal system would have been no better with helpredressal anywayOr is it simply onersquos willingness to give up on liberties so easily which makes you wonder if we deserved them in the first place Or do they believe the proof of the pudding is in the eating mdash the implementation of governmentled censorship on the ground mdash allowing for benefit of doubt So why worry until worry worries usBesides itrsquos not even an industry issue as much as it concerns every single consumer That move was easy though Itrsquos yesterdayrsquos news already Some TV anchorschannels have probably moved on to expanding Overton Window on newer subjects still Keep an eye there perhapsMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper