"They have apologised for hurting Indian sentiments and have sworn to correct the error by November 30, 2020," she added.
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.
Political controversies aside, Twitter's business in India is expanding, and creating opportunities for Indians, reports Neha Alawadhi.
The government is also trying to curb child abuse and pornography and such platforms act as catalysts in these cases.
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.
Telecom industry body COAI has approached the information technology ministry for removal of fake and misleading messages from social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter linking spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the claims linking 5G with coronavirus are baseless as 5G networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. In a letter dated May 15 to MeitY additional secretary Rajendra Kumar, COAI director general S P Kochhar said: "To safeguard the national interest, we request your good office to kindly instruct all the social media platforms such as Facebook, Watsapp, Twitter, etc, to remove all such posts and misleading campaigns from their platforms on an urgent basis." People have been sharing audio and video messages on social media platforms in which 5G towers are being blamed for rise in casualties across the country even though none of the companies have installed 5G technology anywhere in India.
The ministry of electronics and information technology is working on creating a software product council, including members from the government, academia and industry that will work on implementing a software products mission.
Facebook had collected certificates from both the firms in 2016-17 that data collected by them using "thisisyourdigitallife" was accounted for and destroyed.
Representatives of Facebook India have been asked to appear on Friday before the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi, while Twitter officials are required to appear before the panel on October 28, as per the notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The policy proposes a single-window platform for facilitation of the Indian software product industry, to help fast-track legal and regulatory issues over import and export, as well as setting up and winding up enterprises.
The incident became grist for media attention for people scanning 'cow' along with a Muslim name, regardless of the fact that in Manipur Muslims occupy a specific socio cultural and political positioning with the community having assimilated with the majority Meiteis, says Chitra Ahanthem.
According to CAIT, e-commerce policy should take within its ambit not only foreign players but also domestic ones.
Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Gujarat are alarmed by the rising use of the app in smaller towns and hinterland, where it is increasingly being used for spreading hate messages and child pornography.
Social media platform Twitter is learnt to have written to the government that it is in advanced stages of finalising chief compliance officer as per the new IT rules and additional details will be submitted to the government within a week, according to an official source.
'Transparency, privacy and security have been the core design principle of Aarogya Setu. Opening the source code to developer community signifies Government of India continuing principal to these commitments'
The demand for Tharoor's removal comes days after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology was set to question government officials on the Pegasus spyware issue.
'When a person is capable of infecting 50 others, will you think about the privacy of the person or about protecting the lives of people?'
The proposed new norms include deployment of technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content, minister of state for electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The Manipur government's plan to carve out seven new districts in the hill areas has ignited old resentments between Naga and non-Naga ethnic groups, leading to clashes and a month-long economic blockade.
He said the force, which guards over 6,300 km of India's land border with Pakistan in the west and Bangladesh on the east, is faced by four main challenges on the security front.
Insurgent groups like ULFA and NSCN-K have been using Myanmar as safe sanctuary and have set up bases there, despite that country's repeated assurances not to allow its territory for activities inimical to India, Government said on Tuesday.
The high court pointed out that only an interim RGO was appointed by Twitter and a wrong impression was given to the court on May 31 as it was not informed that the appointment was on interim basis.
Unauthorised sale of data to third parties will land developers in trouble.
Tharoor put the blame for the logjam in Parliament on BJP and accused the saffron party of reducing the "temple of democracy to a rubber stamp for its agenda or worse, a notice board to announce its unilateral decisions".
Microblogging site Twitter's explanations to a parliamentary panel on showing Ladakh as part of China are inadequate and the act amounts to criminal offence attracting imprisonment of seven years, committee chairman Meenakshi Lekhi said on Wednesday.
'Google and Facebook need to be tamed, their garb of 'Investing in India's future' need to be pulled off,' observes Vibhu Arya.
WhatsApp said it would be instituting awards for research on 'spread of misinformation' on its platform.
The US tech major is planning to begin local production of its upcoming iPhone 12 by next April - within six months of its launch.
The official also said the government's official app helped generate information about 697 potential hotspots in the country.
Even though PUBG Corporation is a South Korean company with its headquarters in Seoul, Tencent Gaming, a subsidiary of Chinese investment and technology giant Tencent, holds the global franchise for the mobile version of the game.
Several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Israel Canada and Singapore, have asked their citizens to exercise caution while travelling to the Northeast India which has witnessed violent protests against the amended citizenship act.
In a communication to the ministry of electronics and information technology, the messaging service said it was committed to protecting the privacy of its over 400 million users in India.
The Covid pandemic has left a question mark on how the central government manages its staff.
The proposed policy is increasingly becoming an item of negotiation, as the US pushes hard to change India's stance.
The payments industry is at a crossroads with the banking regulator on two pressing issues, neither of which seems headed towards an amicable solution. Depending upon which side accommodates the other, customers in India will have to choose between convenience and ironclad safety. In the end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates both banks and all payments services providers, will prevail. But the question is: will it do so by bending a little or by sticking to its firm stand? The two issues - one concerning payment facilitators storing customers' card details and the other about auto-renewal of payments - appear similar but aren't.
'The information is used only to fight the COVID-19 virus and the privacy terms explicitly state that information will be used only for this purpose.'
A government panel said policymakers and regulators should have an open mind regarding the introduction of an official digital currency in India.
The top court also asked the Centre to submit its report in January on the notification of rules by which social media misuse can be checked and liability could be fastened on intermediaries to decrypt messages.
'India missed the software products revolution (and now is in danger of missing the platform revolution), complacent that we are the software experts of the world based on IT services prowess,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
The move by the government to make local language support a must in mobile phones is aimed at making users communicate in local languages and access government services
