Fake news more dangerous than paid news: I&B Minister Javadekar

Fake news is more dangerous than paid news and there is need for the government and the media to combat it jointly, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday.

The government will not take any step that may curb media freedom, the minister said and suggested there should be some kind of regulation on over-the-top platforms (OTT), as there is for the print and electronic media as well as films.

OTT platforms include news portals and also 'streamers' such as Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which are accessible over the internet or ride on an operator's network.

In an interaction with PTI journalists at the news agency's headquarters here, Javadekar said several mainstream media outlets have conveyed to the government that that there was no level-playing field with OTT platforms being completely unregulated.

"I have sought suggestions on how to deal with this because there are regular feature films coming on OTT -- good, bad and ugly. So how to deal