India had ordered all unregistered web-based taxi cos to halt operations
The government will come out with proposed modalities and terms of references for setting up grievance appellate committees to address social media users' complaints in the next 10-12 days, and expects the panel to be in place by November 30, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) too, is going big on popularising e-Sport with Singapore being confirmed to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in June next year.
Arshdeep Singh has incurred the wrath of social media users since Sunday when he dropped a catch in the closing stages of a tense India-Pakistan match.
Indian start-ups raised issues, such as blockages in international wire transfers, disruptions due to threshold limits on withdrawals, lack of communication from US agencies, and the need for preferential access to credit, in a meeting with the government over the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, held a virtual meeting with over 450 members from start-ups, venture capitalists, and investors who have been directly affected by the closure of SVB. He assured them that the IT ministry would put together a list of suggestions and give it to the finance minister on behalf of start-ups.
Tech titan Google on Thursday announced new online safety initiatives in India, including multi-city cybersecurity roadshows to upskill about 100,000 developers and digital safety-focused grants of $2 million from Google.org to community organisations.
Over 23.87 lakh Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp in July.
The content 'actioned' belonged to categories including bullying and harassment, violent and graphic content, adult nudity and sexual activity, child endangerment, dangerous organisations and individuals, and spam, among others.
The government on Monday published a draft data policy for public consultation, which says all data collected, generated, and stored by every government ministry and department will be open and shareable barring certain exceptions. Also, detailed datasets that have undergone value addition could be monetised by the government. The policy document, called "Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022", prescribes that a regulatory authority called the Indian Data Council (IDC) and an agency by the name India Data Office (IDO) will oversee framing metadata standards and enforcement, respectively.
The government on Friday tweaked IT rules to pave the way for setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the plea for an SIT probe into the damage to public properties during the protests against Agnipath will be listed for hearing after the Chief Justice of India takes a decision in this regard.
In comparison, the messaging platform had banned over 16 lakh accounts of Indian users in the month of April, and 18.05 lakh such accounts in March.
The ministry of home affairs has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications that pose a threat to the country's security, officials sources said on Monday.
The government has asked social media companies to immediately remove any content from their platform that uses or refers to the term 'Indian variant' of coronavirus, to curb misinformation around COVID-19, sources said Friday.
China on Thursday criticised India's latest decision to block access to 54 more Chinese mobile apps over security and privacy concerns, saying that the move has damaged the legitimate interests of companies from China. India on Monday blocked 54 more apps with Chinese links, including Tencent Xriver, Nice Video baidu, Viva Video Editor, and gaming app Garena Free Fire Illuminate. The Chinese apps allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collect sensitive user data. The collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in a hostile country, sources in India said, adding that the IT ministry has issued interim directions for the blocking of 54 apps.
Sources further said that Twitter is the only social media platform among the mainstream that has not adhered to the new laws.
The sources said Twitter has not sent details of Chief Compliance Officer to the ministry and only shared details of a lawyer working in a law firm in India as their Nodal Contact Person and Grievance Officer.
A Twitter spokesperson on Tuesday said the company continues to make every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and is keeping the IT Ministry apprised of progress at every step of the process.
The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre to apprise it about the views on the issue of protection of interest of citizens till the colonial-era penal law on sedition is reconsidered by an appropriate forum.
The government on Saturday issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to 'immediately' comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.
Social media needs to be made more accountable and stricter rules in this regard could be brought in if there is political consensus on the matter, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The government will undertake a detailed evaluation of applications it has received in response to the mega semiconductor scheme and expects to complete the entire process and sign agreements with companies in next 8-10 months, according to Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw said he is happy with the response that came in within a short period of time, when the ministry invited applications under the Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor programme. The government is confident of seeing one of the big global players in semiconductor industry coming in the next round, Vaishnaw told PTI in an interview. He asserted that many other players too are "seriously evaluating" India's semiconductor programme, and that the ministry is in discussions with several companies.
The IT ministry has now written to all these companies, warning that continued availability and operation of these banned apps, directly or indirectly, is not only illegal but also an offence under the Information Technology Act and other applicable Acts, which would attract penal provisions.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country in an bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production. Announcing the decision of the Cabinet, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw observed that electronics plays an important role in everyday life, and semiconductor chips forms a crucial part of electronics. Outlining the details of the scheme, he said the Rs 76,000 crore programme has been approved for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem.
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country's new IT rules, which has led to the United States giant losing its intermediary status in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.
Sources further said that WhatsApp's policy update would also be evaluated in the context of the current legal framework.
Junior minister for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar briefly lost the verified blue badge on his Twitter handle on Monday after he changed his username on the microblogging platform.
In a statement, the IT ministry termed WhatsApp's last moment challenge to the intermediary guidelines as an unfortunate attempt to prevent norms from coming into effect.
The move assumes significance as a series of reports recently citing internal documents showed "a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence" in India - Facebook's biggest market with over 40 crore users.
The IT ministry said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India.
'Due to an inadvertent error, we temporarily locked this account under our global copyright policies. This decision was reversed immediately and the account is fully functional'
The new rules require large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.
Information technology industry veteran V Balakrishnan on Thursday criticised the new digital rules, alleging that they appear to be unduly compromising the privacy right of citizens. The two key issues with the new IT rules relate to user privacy, which is a fundamental right, and the oversight mechanism lying fully with the executive arm of the government, said the former chief financial officer of Bengaluru-headquartered IT major Infosys Ltd.
The government questioned the manner in which Twitter "officially allows fake, unverified, anonymous and automated bot accounts to be operated on its platform" and said it raises doubts about its commitment to transparency and healthy conversation on the platform.
Lashing out at the micro-blogging platform over non-compliance, Prasad said that it is "astounding" that Twitter that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the intermediary guidelines.
"Delhi Police had requested the IT ministry to block two download links and the entire We Transfer website immediately. Following which orders were issued to the website and links suggested by the Delhi Police," an official source told PTI.
The government on Wednesday informed Parliament that there is no proposal with the Information Technology ministry to set up a regulator for social media.
Home ministry asks IT ministry to order social media platforms to remove around 100 posts or URLs.
#TwitterBan was trending on Twitter with almost 17,000 tweets.
Social media giant Facebook has named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its website.
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