Explore Business Standard
Social Media Apps
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has observed that the Centre could consider framing a legislation to regulate the use of internet by kids, similar to a law in Australia. Until such a legislation is in place, the state and national commission for protection of child rights could draft an action plan to create awareness among children on child rights and safe use of the internet, the court said. The framework suggested by the court aims at restricting children below 16 years from having social media accounts, amidst apprehensions over the minors' exposure to harmful online content. A division bench comprising Justices G Jayachandran and K K Ramakrishnan made the remarks recently after counsel K P S Palanivel Rajan, representing the petitioner S Vijayakumar, cited a new Australian law which banned social media usage by children under 16, and said India could consider introducing similar legislation. Vijayakumar had filed the public interest litigation praying for a directio
The Delhi High Court on Friday directed social media intermediaries to act within seven days on former cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar's plea seeking protection of his personality rights. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora asked Gavaskar's counsel to first approach the social media intermediaries with his grievances. The high court directed the social media intermediaries to treat Gavaskar's suit as a complaint under the Information and Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and take the necessary steps within seven days. The court said in case the social media intermediaries have any reservations to any weblink given by Gavaskar, they should inform him. It directed the plaintiff to provide within 24 hours the URLs in respect of which take down is sought to the social media intermediaries. Gavaskar approached the high court seeking to prevent the unauthorised use of his name, images, persona and likeness by social media platforms
A Pakistan minister has warned that the government may consider banning social media platforms if they do not cooperate with authorities. Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik made these remarks on Thursday, according to a Dawn report. The social media platform X, which around 4.5 million people in Pakistan use, was blocked in February 2024, around 10 days after the general elections. Speaking on Dawn News programme, Barrister Malik, responding to a question about a possible ban on incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan's X account, said investigations are ongoing. He added that while the government has contacted X, the platform has shown the least cooperation compared to other social media networks. Criticising X, the minister said the platform should not operate with double standards. Posts related to Palestine are removed, and accounts blocked, within 24 hours. Here, we are talking about a matter of terrorism, he said. He further noted that the government h
Global online forum Reddit on Friday filed a court challenge to Australia's world-first law that bans Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on the world's most popular social media platforms. California-based Reddit Inc's suit filed in the High Court follows a case filed last month by Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project. Both suits claim the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on Australia's implied freedom of political communication. "We believe there are more effective ways for the Australian government to accomplish our shared goal of protecting youth, and the SMMA (Social Media Minimum Age) law carries some serious privacy and political expression issues for everyone on the internet," Reddit said in a statement. "While we agree with the importance of protecting people under 16, this law has the unfortunate effect of forcing intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes on adults as well as minors, isolating teens from the .
Social media platforms must report monthly how many children's accounts they close once Australia begins enforcing its 16-year age limit next week, a minister said Wednesday. Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) from Dec. 10 if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Livestreaming service Twitch was added to the list of age-restricted platforms less than two weeks ago. The Australian eSafety Commissioner will send the 10 platforms notices on Dec. 11 demanding information about the numbers of accounts removed. Monthly notices would follow for six months. The government recognizes that age assurance may require several days or weeks to complete fairly and accurately, Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club of Australia. However, if eSafety identifies systemic breaches of the law, the platforms will
They go by names like @TRUMP_ARMY or @MAGANationX, and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Donald Trump, voter rallies and American flags. And they're constantly posting about US politics to their followers, sounding like diehard fans of the president. But after a weekend update to the social media platform X, it's now clear that the owners of these accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Elon Musk's X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts, often but not limited to posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the United States raising concerns about foreign influence on US politics. Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accounts purportedly run by Americans interested in .
Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to download their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect. The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10. California-based Meta on Thursday became the first of the targeted tech companies to outline how it will comply with the law. Meta contacted thousands of young account holders via SMS and email to warn that suspected children will start to be denied access to the platforms from Dec. 4. We will start notifying impacted teens today to give them the opportunity to save their contacts and memories, Meta said in a statement. Meta said young users could also use the notice period to update