Page 10 - Social Media

Delhi HC orders YouTuber to remove 'defamatory' video against Sadhguru

Shyam Meera Singh uploaded the video, titled "Sadhguru EXPOSED: What's happening in Jaggi Vasudev's Ashram", on February 24 and shared it on his 'X' page

X crashes multiple times on Monday, Elon Musk claims 'massive cyberattack'

Elon Musk, who acquired X (formerly Twitter) in 2022 for $44 billion, has yet to comment on the multiple X outages

Social media accounts accessed only in search, survey ops: I-T official

The new Income Tax Bill prescribes the existing process for tax authorities to gain access to the digital space or a computer device only during search and survey operations, and it is not aimed to breach the online privacy of common taxpayers even if their case lands into scrutiny, a top I-T department official said Monday. The powers for such a coercive action "already existed" in the 1961 Act, and these have only been reiterated in the Income Tax Bill of 2025, he said. The official rejected claims made in some reports and opinion pieces that the tax authorities have been granted "additional" powers to breach the passwords of electronic records, including email, social media handles and Cloud storage space of the taxpayers. "Such reports are nothing but fear mongering. The tax department is not into snooping of social media accounts or online activities of a taxpayer. "These powers are only to be executed during the course of a search or survey operation, and that too when the ..

China cracks down on wealth flaunting, sets new rules for finance sector

In recent years, the Chinese government has increased its actions and criticism of conspicuous consumption and the flaunting of wealth on social media

Women's Day 2025: Meet the 6 achievers who took over PM Modi's social media

International Women's Day: Prime Minister Narendra Modi commended these trailblazing women for their remarkable contributions to society and their role in shaping a developed India

India's Got Latent row: Allahbadia, Apoorva Mukhija appear before NCW

Social media personalities Ranveer Allahbadia and Apoorva Mukhija appeared before the National Commission for Women on Thursday over the derogatory remarks made on comic Samay Raina's show "India's Got Latent". Producers of the show -- Saurabh Bothra and Tushar Poojari -- and lawyers of comic Jaspreet Singh and YouTuber Ashish Chanchlani also appeared before the panel, sources said. The commission had taken serious note of the vulgar and offensive remarks made by Allahbadia, Makhija, Raina, Jaspreet Singh and Ashish Chanchlani on the show and summoned them as well Poojari and Bothra. Several FIRs were lodged against Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, for the comment on parents and sex on Raina's show. However, the Supreme Court has granted Allahbadia interim protection from arrest over his comments on the show while calling it "vulgar" and saying he had a "dirty mind" which put society to shame.

Google reports 250+ AI deepfake terrorism content to Australian regulator

The Australian eSafety Commission called Google's disclosure "world-first insight" into how users may be exploiting the technology to produce harmful and illegal content

SC to hear petition against blocking social media content without notice

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea over issue of blocking of social media accounts or content without an opportunity to be heard to the creator or originator. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih sought Centre's response on the petition for quashing Rule 16 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. The bench issued notice on the plea. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for petitioner Software Freedom Law Center, said no notice was given to the "originator" of the information and a notice was only sent to platforms like X. "The challenge is not that the government does not have the power to take down information, but while taking down the information, notice should be given to the person who has put that information in the public domain," she said. The plea, filed through advocate Paras Nath Singh, challenged the validity of certain provisions of the 2009 Rules.

SC questions Centre over social media gag order without user notice

The Supreme Court has asked Centre to justify social media takedowns without user notice, stressing the need for due process before removing posts linked to identifiable individuals

Local creative content driving short-form video demand, says ShareChat CFO

India's booming short-form video market is just about getting started, with demand for engaging local content and uptake in smaller locations fuelling growth, Manohar Singh Charan, Chief Financial Officer of homegrown social media platforms ShareChat and Moj said. Differentiated services with regional relevance are driving sustained business momentum and yielding new opportunities for brands to connect with audiences, he added. In an interview with PTI, Charan said the company is on the brink of being EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) positive at a consolidated level. Mohalla Tech is the parent entity of the social media app ShareChat and the short video app Moj. He said hiring will be "cautious", geared to selective and specialised roles as the company gets into the profitability zone. The Google-backed company is also looking to rope in a few more marquee investors before it goes for an IPO in a 24-month timeframe. Charan said the company, i

Pentagon orders purge of social sites to dump diversity mentions by March 5

Building lethality in the military may be the buzzword for the new Trump administration, but busywork and paperwork have become the reality at the Pentagon, as service members and civilian workers are facing a broad mandate to purge all of the department's social media sites and untangle confusing personnel reduction moves. On Wednesday, the department's top public affairs official signed and sent out a new memo requiring all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. If they can't do that by March 5, they have been ordered to temporarily remove from public display" all content published during the Biden administration's four years in office, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Associated Press. The new directive comes as the military services also are scrambling to identify probationary workers the administration has targeted f

YouTube top platform for podcasts with over 1 bn viewers a month, says exec

YouTube first identified podcasts as a popular content format during the pandemic. Before then the medium wasn't something YouTube had specifically supported

88% parents favour forcing apps to shut child accounts with falsified age

A majority of parents surveyed favour a mandate for apps to shut down accounts of children opened by age misrepresentation or seek parental guidance for the continuation of the same, online survey firm LocalCircles said on Wednesday. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 mandates online platforms to verify the age of children and seek explicit parental consent before processing their data. The survey report said that some parents believe that many children have falsely represented their age when signing up on the platforms, and with no checks and balances existing on most platforms, they were able to sign up and use such platforms. "88 per cent of parents surveyed in favour of DPDP rules mandating that platforms (social media, OTT, online gaming, etc.) identify any minor accounts with age misrepresented and proactively either seek parental consent or shut such accounts," the survey said. Out of 21,760 parent respondents, only 4 per cent favoured continued usage of the ...

Women achievers to take over PM Modi's social media accounts on Women's Day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that he will hand over his various social media accounts to women achievers in different fields to mark the International Women's Day on March 8. In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address, he said these successful women in different fields will speak about their work and experience on his social media accounts. "Let's us celebrate and respect the indomitable spirit of women," he said, lauding the increasing participation of women in different sectors. Modi had handed over his social media accounts to seven leading women in different fields on March 8 in 2020 in a similar gesture. With followers in tens of millions on X, YouTube and Instagram among other handles, Modi is one of the most followed global leaders on social media. The prime minister also renewed his appeal to people to take measures to deal with the growing problem of obesity, saying it is necessary for India to become a fit and healthy country. Citing research, he said one out of

Scientists call for open access to X's data for academic analyses, research

Researchers are calling for free access to social media platform X's data for academic analyses, insights from which can help understand trends in political engagement. Efforts of a research group from Saarland University, Germany, were halted abruptly when X's owner Elon Musk blocked free access to X's data for academic research purposes in June 2023. The US-based entrepreneur acquired the platform, then known as Twitter, in October 2022. The team wanted to know whether Twitter prioritised tweets from politicians from the right of the political spectrum between 2021 and 2023. "It is simply not acceptable that access to these vast amounts of data is either unaffordable or provided so selectively that no meaningful analyses can be conducted," lead researcher Ingmar Weber, a professor of artificial intelligence (AI) and chair for societal computing at Saarland University, said. The researchers called for implementation of legislation to ensure that academic researchers can regain acc

Railways asks X to remove stampede videos in 36 hrs, cites ethical concerns

The notice said that sharing such videos could lead to public unrest and disrupt railway operations, particularly during the current period of heavy train traffic

Explained: What is analogue paneer? Why is the internet buzzing about it?

The use of analogue paneer by food joints has sparked concern, especially in urban areas where many rely on food deliveries and restaurant meals

Brazil's top court justice orders X to pay $1.4 mn fine for non-compliance

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X to pay 8.1 million Brazilian reais (USD 1.4 million) in fines for failing to comply with judicial orders, according to a judicial ruling. The ruling, signed on Wednesday and made public by the court on Thursday, said the social media platform refused to provide registration data for a profile attributed to Allan dos Santos, an ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro accused of spreading falsehoods. In July 2024, De Moraes ordered both X and Meta to block and ban the account and provide the data. X said it had blocked the account but could not deliver the requested information, arguing that its operators didn't collect it and that the user had "no technical connection point with Brazil". De Moraes rejected the argument and, in early August, imposed a daily fine of 100,000 Brazilian reais (USD 17,500) if the social media platform failed to provide the data. By October, the total fine for noncompliance had reached 8.1 million

India's Got Latent row: Centre asks OTT, social media to follow regulations

In its latest notice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has acknowledged the alleged dissemination of obscene, pornographic, and vulgar content on OTT platforms and social media

Musk's X in talks to raise money at $44 billion valuation: Report

Musk bought X for the same price in 2022, but some investors including Fidelity Investments have sharply written down the value of their stake as the platform struggled to retain advertisements