The rush to put together an independent body for online content regulation is turning out to be quite a challenge for the Internet and Mobile Association of India. Its Governing Council, which convened on 23rd March 2020, has asked the IAMAI to go back to its Digital Entertainment committee, and finalise an online content regulation code that has the largest consensus among digital entertainment companies. The code that was presented to the Governing Council didn't have consensus. In fact, out of around 30 members of the Digital Entertainment committee, it only had 5 signatories. This led to a fairly heated discussion within the Digital Entertainment committee on 18th March, and questions were raised about whether the new code - called the Tier 2 code - can even be seen as an IAMAI code, and calls were made for starting the process of determining an IAMAI position on online content regulation all over again. Thus, the Governing Council has decided to also discuss the mechanism as per which the IAMAI takes a position, so that such a situation doesn't arise again. Last month, the IAMAI pushed through the Tier 2 code, which would lead to the setting up of a body (called the DCCC) for regulating content on streaming services in India, without much deliberation and consensus. As per MediaNama's sources, IAMAI's Digital Entertainment committee was informed about the Tier-2 code on January 31th 2020; a copy of the new code was shared with them on the February 3rd; and the…
