Amazon Prime Video is censoring content in India, but it's not as bad as you might think

Amazon Prime Video’s global expansion is quickly taking shape as a pivotal moment in the service’s history, but as more people turn their attention to Amazon’s service, they have started to notice and speculate on things.

According to several media reports, Amazon is censoring content for Prime Video users in India. A report for instance called out Amazon for "badly" censoring the content.

The censored content in question is the fourth episode of The Grand Tour, an Amazon Originals. The 62-minute episode, according to IMDb, is only 30 minutes long in India.

The company has cut parts from the video that showed footage of a windshield that was made of a cow’s body organs. In a statement, the company said it abides by standard regulations and keeps the Indian cultural sensitivities in mind. Cow is respected with high stature in many Indian communities.

“Amazon Prime Video offers the largest selection of movies and TV shows of any OTT video service in India and give customers the choice on what to watch. Amazon is a responsible company and we are here to entertain the Indian customer with award-winning content from the US along with blockbusters from Indian and regional makers," the company said in a statement to Mashable India.

"We will keep Indian cultural sensitivities in mind while offering this content to customers," the company added.

We explored the catalog, and found that most English as well as Hindi titles are available in full-length in India. On top of that, Amazon is also offering some titles such as Om-Dar-B-Dar and Titli that were criticized by many in India. The company has, however, blurred some stills that showed nudity.

That particular episode of The Grand Tour is one of the few videos where Amazon has cut more than a couple of seconds, according to people familiar with the matter. The vast majority of content on Amazon Prime Video for India is untouched, sources at the industry and company added. Less than one percent of the catalog has been censored, another person said. The people didn't want to be identified.

Censorship of content isn't unheard of in India. TV channels often self-censor content in accordance with their audience and local law. Two people added that Amazon is closely watching how the local authority handles a recent controversial RTI application where censorship on Netflix and Hotstar was sought for offering unfiltered content on their respective services.