Three takeaways for individuals living in a global society today, where misinformation and disinformation are rife.
Co-founders of fact-checking website AltNews Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair and Indian author Harsh Mander are among the favourites to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, according to shortlists released ahead of the announcement.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday said it was troubled by the fact that the recently amended IT Rules to curb online fake news against the government offer no recourse to a person whose social media post has been removed or account suspended after being flagged by the proposed Fact Checking Unit (FCU).
Particularly the small and independent Web sites that have developed a following in the recent past because the mainstream is seen as totally aligned with the government, points out Aakar Patel.
Gokhale on December 1 tweeted a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through the Right to Information claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost Rs 30 crore.
The statement came amid an escalating war of words between the government and Twitter over the new social media rules and the recent visit by Delhi Police personnel to the offices of Twitter India.
Afwaah is a sum of Sudhir Mishra's thought-provoking reflections and appeal to question what's real, what's rumour, notes Sukanya Verma.
Asked about action taken against those spreading fake news, and publishers of anti-national material, he said more than 60 accounts have been blocked including those on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Kindness and compassion is all you need to survive and build your life. And that is what makes 2018's Kerala story so relevant, notes Divya Nair.
A four-member team of the Delhi Police on Thursday reached AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair's residence in Bengaluru as part of the investigation related to his 2018 tweet that led to his arrest, police said.
The ministry on Thursday urged people to email snapshots of any 'dubious material' they come across on any platform including social media and it will get it checked.
Taking note of the submissions of the Delhi police, the court asked the probe agency to place the chargesheet filed in the case before it.
The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday termed as 'extremely disturbing' the arrest of AltNews co-founder Muhammad Zubair on charges of hurting religious sentiments, and demanded his immediate release.
"One WhatsApp message and the damage is done," he said.
'The Opposition thinks since the ruling party is following Savarkar's Hindutva philosophy, they want to regain their lost political mileage (by attacking Savarkar).' 'By doing so, they think they will get their power back.'
India on Thursday trashed Germany's criticism over fact-checker Mohammed Zubair's arrest, saying the independence of the country's judiciary is well recognised and that "uninformed" comments are "unhelpful" and should be avoided.
The anonymous Twitter handle, a complaint from which led to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's arrest, does not exist on the microblogging website anymore.
A day after fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police, officials said on Tuesday that his 'objectionable tweet of 2018 led to a Twitter storm with hate speeches, detrimental to communal harmony'.
Cases filed under Section 153A had one of the lowest conviction rates.
The order comes a day after Trump accused Twitter of election interference, after it added fact-check links to two of his tweets.
Lawyer Vrinda Grover, appearing for the petitioner, informed the high court that the trial court had granted bail to him earlier this month but urged the bench to grant him relief as sought in the petition.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday instructed her home minister to initiate immediate action against those who incited violence using religion as she asked the people not to trust anything on social media without fact-checking.
The Modi government finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Television news networks, including ABC CBS and NBC all cut away from United States President Donald Trump as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the election was being stolen from him.
Hate speech content removal has increased over 15X on Facebook and Instagram since Facebook first began reporting it.
"Social media (84.94 per cent) produces the largest amount of misinformation, and the internet (90.5 per cent) as a whole is responsible for most of the COVID-19 misinformation. Moreover, Facebook alone produces 66.87 per cent of the misinformation among all social media platforms," it stated.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who is being probed for posting an alleged objectionable tweet against a Hindu deity in 2018, denied before the Delhi high court the claim of the city police that he posted content that triggers religious sentiments to gain popularity.
WhatsApp limited the number of times a frequently forwarded message can be sent further to only one chat at a time. This resulted in 70% plunge in viral forwarded messages globally, WhatsApp told GoI.
'It was more than ego.' 'It carried with it a sincere belief that he was the quintessence of the country, that the country's destiny was irrevocably intertwined with his destiny.' An excerpt from T J S George's The Dismantling of India: In 35 Portraits.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday mooted the idea of "One Nation, One Uniform" for the police, saying it is just a suggestion for consideration and he is not trying to impose it on the states.
Around Rs 10 lakh has been raised for the boy who was allegedly thrashed for drinking water inside a Ghaziabad temple, online crowdfunding platform Ketto said Friday.
Internal documents at Facebook show "a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence" in India, the company's biggest market, with researchers at the social media giant pointing out that there are groups and pages "replete with inflammatory and misleading anti-Muslim content" on its platform, US media reports have said.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recounts the history of the Indian flag and how it has evolved over the years.
Members of a parliamentary committee on Thursday raised the issue of Twitter temporarily locking the account of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2020 as well as misrepresentation of the Indian map by the micro-blogging site, sources said.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com traces how the beating up of a man in Ghaziabad went from alleged communal attack to reported regular crime in a matter of days.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of six FIR lodged against him in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The panel had called him on the issue of the citizens' data safety.
'This is the first time there has been an attempt to use market forces to counter disinformation on social media,' notes Devangshu Datta.
India has much to be proud of and celebrate. But there is also much that is wrong, much that looks dangerous. Employment, current account deficit, rural distress, agricultural productivity are all in deep crisis, points out Shekhar Gupta.
A key suspect and his accomplice accused of fanning communal hatred on social media and instigating the recent violence against the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh have confessed to their crime in a pre-trial hearing, a court official has said.
