Should OTT and YouTube be Censored? Important MBA GD/WAT/PI Topic

By Kirtika Singh Tanwar

Most of you will be aware of the recent happenings on the critically acclaimed and viral show by Samay Raina “India’s GoT Latent” and how an indecent remark has taken Ranveer Allahbadia into a court case. YouTube has taken down the episode following the government’s notice.

This situation makes for an interesting WAT and GD Topic regarding censorship on creative platforms and our freedom of speech. So imagine if OTT Censorship is your GD topic/WAT or a random question in your MBA personal interview. What would be your answer? Please read through the points and tell us in the comments.

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OTT Censorship & Viral Controversies- GD Topic

Without taking any sides, here are some facts that you should know:

This is not the first time a roast show has been criticized for moral policing. The AIB podcast faced similar backlash for insensitive comments on issues of feminism 10 years back. Content like this has been online for many years. Samay Raina has a reputation for making below-the-line jokes, and that is all the show is about.
Talking about Ranveer’s indecent and vulgar comment, it was copied from a foreign creator's video which points to the fact that content like this is easily available. If we go after morally policing Indian Creators, the issue won't be resolved. Dark crass humor is readily available by foreign creators and those comedians can easily fill up their shoes and pockets.
Canceling a particular creator will have no real effect on the actual mindset the people have. But given the reputation and young following Ranveer has made a blunder to go with the sentiments of the show. People lack basic decency, and that is the problem of the country in general and not a single creator.
The issue with OTT censorship or censoring creative content is that it will not only block the insensitive dark humor but also the need-of-the-hour movies. For example, OMG 2, a film on teen sexual education did not get the desired certificate and ended up missing its target audience in the theaters. Additionally, most of the traditional news channels are already in line with a particular political party.
The Indian Audience is a hypocrite too, the same people who had hooted on the wild comments made in Animal and trolled Urfi Javed and Kusha Kapila for not being the sport when they faced verbal abuse, and indecent personal comments are now writing paragraphs.
The outroar by the general public and trolling will continue for a few days. The creators/ comedians have issued an apology and will continue to do so. They have money, PR, and connections to clean their image and undo the court case. A public backslash is acceptable but the same reaching parliament with political involvement is not. We have other crises to deal with- women’s safety in the real world, growing pollution, and a tight economy.
Money vs. Morality: If people are willing to go indecent, it is definitely up to them. We can not control other people’s mentality. What we can do is skip the content, protect the children, and disregard every content piece that goes against the basic decency one should follow. These shows on OTT or influencers are not the only source of adult content/ dark humor. Pirated sites have been working in India for a long time.