India Regulates Tobacco Content on Streaming Services

India is the first country in the world to regulate tobacco content in online video streaming platforms such as Netflix. The new regulations will help prevent tobacco industry messaging and imagery from reaching the ever-expanding audiences that consume media online, especially youth. 

The regulations require health warning messages to appear before, during and after content that depicts tobacco use, extending an existing law, known as the Film Rule, that applies to movie theaters and broadcast television channels.

We created this short explainer video with Nandita Murukutla, Vice President, Global Policy and Research at Vital Strategies and Jorge Alday, Director, STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) to show how this bold step to prevent tobacco industry messaging on streaming media came about and how other countries can follow.