Social Media Apps

Delhi Police is monitoring various social media platforms to curb the spread of misinformation amid protests in the capital, with around 300 posts allegedly aimed at spreading rumours or creating public unrest taken down, police sources said on Monday. The action comes days after police arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create and circulate a fabricated video depicting a police officer sexually harassing a woman journalist during a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The accused, identified as Nadeem Ahmed, allegedly circulated the video falsely portraying a police personnel in an objectionable manner, police said. The incident is being investigated separately from the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against police personnel by women journalists. The police have also approached social media platform X seeking the removal of objectionable and allegedly misleading content linked to the protests, source

The government has advised large social media firms to prioritise action against unlawful content related to ongoing protests based on complaints received from authorised bodies, including law enforcement agencies, sources aware of the development said. The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is learnt to have issued an advisory to social media platforms on October 8, expressing concern over the online circulation of certain information related to the ongoing protests that is false, misleading, manipulated or presented out of context. The IT Ministry has expressed apprehension that such unlawful content may disturb public order, social tranquility and raise law and order concern as well as may incite violence. "MeitY has advised large social media platforms to identify such unlawful content and prioritise action based on complaints received from authorised government bodies," an official source aware of the development said. The advisory has asked social media platforms to labe

Government tells Supreme Court it will make age restrictions a statutory obligation for platforms after bench pushes for enforceable safeguards

Indirect aggression in Indian conversations on social media platform X is most common during major social, financial, sporting and political events, business school researchers have found after they used machine learning models to examine patterns of aggressive communication, analysing more than 1.31 lakh posts. The study, titled "Indian Aggression Detection through Multiple ML Models from Twitter Data", was conducted by researchers at Goa Institute of Management (GIM) and Goa Business School. The findings have been published in renowned journal "Advances in Consumer Research". The study explored whether machine learning could help to identify different forms of aggression in Indian X posts and how aggressive behaviour varied across emotionally and politically charged events. The researchers classified the posts into three categories -- Overtly Aggressive (OAG), Covertly Aggressive (CAG) and Non-Aggressive (NAG). "The findings indicate that OAG responses among Indians remained ...

The Supreme Court directed the Centre to disclose measures taken to implement its 2024 ruling on reporting child sexual exploitation and abuse material by intermediaries

The EU is proposing more than age limits for children online, with a common verification system and rules designed to make platforms safer by default

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to respond whether it was contemplating a policy to regulate addiction-causing design features on social media platforms like infinite scroll and autoplay. A bench of Justices Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Amit Sharma said it would hear after three weeks a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking constitution of an expert committee to examine engagement-maximising and addiction-causing design features on social media platforms. On being asked by the court whether the Centre was contemplating framing a policy on the issue, additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma said he does not have specific instructions on this. To this, the bench orally said, "you take instructions whether you are contemplating framing of a policy and we will have the matter after three weeks". Sharma also said that the PIL does raises some issues but it will be in the domain of the policy makers to consider and suggested that the petition could give a representati

If Meta is forced to abandon the engagement-algorithm for its most committed users, and if other platforms follow suit, the industry will undergo a tectonic shift

The new protections will first apply in participating US states and territories, subject to judicial approval. Meta has not announced these measures as a global rollout

In a public callout to TikTok and YouTube that included a plan to publish open letters in newspapers, Meta said it's seeking to set a 'new industry standard'

The antitrust and consumer protection agency has been probing YouTube since last year and is in the final stages of preparing a potential lawsuit

Meta's up to $18 billion settlement with nearly all US states over social media harm to teenagers has opened a new front in a global government fight to protect children and curb addiction

Instagram's new First Draft feature creates a rough Reel from selected clips, trimming footage and removing pauses automatically, with iPhone users able to edit and refine the video before publishing

In a landmark deal with state attorneys general across the US, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and implement design changes

Of the overall amount, the company has pledged to shell out about $12.7 billion in installments to states over the next 10 years as a starting point

The deal requires Meta to put new guardrails on its platforms, including restricting how much time youths can scroll and preventing them from switching off certain safety settings

Some 26% of children between the ages of 13 and 15 were on TikTok as of last month, just one percentage point below the rate prior to Australia's groundbreaking rules coming into effect

Parents say this trial, in which the attorneys general from four states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children, marks a significant moment.

AI is making content creation faster and cheaper, but the rise of synthetic influencers and mass-produced posts is pushing platforms, creators and brands to focus on originality, disclosure and trust

The government's hard talk with Meta has led to action and increased sensitivity on the issue of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), IT Ministry sources said on Tuesday, adding that the Centre has been unequivocal that such content is a clear violation and there is no safe harbour when law is violated in this manner. Sources said the government's intent is not about censorship or restricting coverage in any way, but ensuring Indian laws and norms are followed and that social media harms are mitigated. "The message has gone home," they said. During discussions, Meta explained how its algorithms and systems work, ministry sources said, noting that discussions are on and such matters involve "judgment calls, and tweaks". On the WhatsApp username row, sources said the matter is under examination as it doesn't involve just that particular platform, but other messaging apps as well. Sources said concerns over social media harms is not something specific only to India, it is a concern sha