India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has ordered Telegram to strengthen systems to detect, remove, and prevent the spread of pirated films, over-the-top (OTT) content, and other copyrighted audiovisual material.

The company has 15 days to submit an action taken report.

The ministry said Telegram must improve how it identifies, reports, disables access to, and removes infringing material.

It also told the platform to act against repeat offenders, including channels, groups, bots, user accounts, administrators, and related entities involved in copyright infringement.

The ministry also sought details of Telegram’s complaints system for film producers, OTT platforms, and law enforcement agencies.

It said a reactive, channel-by-channel takedown approach may not be enough to meet India’s intermediary obligations.

That warning aligns with India’s intermediary rules, where safe-harbor protection depends on due diligence under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act and the 2021 Information Technology Rules.

The ministry added that it had earlier acted against more than 3,000 Telegram channels distributing pirated content.

🔗 Source: The Economic Times