Form guidelines to operate OTT web platforms: High Court

The High Court today directed the government to formulate a guideline to operate OTT (over-the-top) web-based platforms and to submit its draft to the court in three months.

The information secretary and the chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) have been ordered to comply with the order.

The HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam came up with the directive while hearing a writ petition on the issue.

During the hearing today, BTRC submitted a report to the HC through its lawyer Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib saying that it could not collect revenue from OTT-based platforms as there was no specific guideline to this effect.

He also said the government has formed a committee to formulate a guideline to run, control and monitor OTT platforms.

The criminal investigation department of the police submitted another report to the HC through Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy saying that it cannot take action against the misuse of OTT due to absence of a specific guideline, writ petitioner Md Tanvir Ahmed, a lawyer, told The Daily Star.

Following the same petition, the HC bench on September 8 last year questioned the inaction and apathy of the authorities concerned in removing "obscene and immoral" videos from the OTT web-based platforms across the country.