Page 2 - Social Media

Best of BS Opinion: The case for keeping UPI free outweighs its infra costs

Today's columns examine the case for keeping UPI free, Punjab's shifting political landscape, General A S Vaidya's forgotten legacy and the rise of founders as brand ambassadors.

France's top court blocks social media ban for children under 15

France's Constitutional Council said the proposed ban disproportionately infringed freedom of expression and lacked safeguards for the right to privacy.

Meta says it has shut down 750,000 under-16 accounts in Australia

The figure includes more than 500,000 accounts Meta removed before the law came into effect in December, along with those it has shut down since, the company said

Much deserved or threatening? Claude's invisible watermark sparks debate

The watermark is embedded in the generated text and is designed to remain invisible to readers. It can travel with text when it is copied and pasted and may survive some editing

Trump sued over paid early access to US policy posts on Truth Social

President Donald Trump was sued in federal court Wednesday to stop him from making money off a new, paid service at his Truth Social company offering early, exclusive access to his posts on US policy. The lawsuit alleges that Trump's deal to post first on his own company's site about US policy decisions on war, tariffs and other issues violates the Constitution and that official announcements should be made available to everyone at the same time. The suit comes after his media company, Trump Media & Technology, rolled out a new subscription service earlier this month charging Wall Street firms as much as USD 100,000 a month to get his posts faster so they can trade off them. "A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago," said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, a plaintiff ..

Meta faces biggest youth social media test yet as 29 US states go to trial

The seven-week trial will test claims that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children hooked and misled users about the safety of its platforms.

YouTube updates channel monetisation rules after 8 years: What's changing

YouTube will raise the bar for new creators joining its Partner Program from February 2027, requiring 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views to qualify for ad and Premium revenue sharing

Centre asks Meta to act against deepfakes, probes role of algorithms

Government may seek legal opinion on further action against Meta after reviewing outcome of recent meetings; other digital platforms could also come under scrutiny

Govt slashes online content takedown time to 2 hours for sensitive matters

The government has slashed the online content takedown time for sensitive matters to 2 hours from the earlier 24 hours given to social media platforms, an official statement said on Thursday. According to the statement, amendments were made on February 10, 2026, in the IT Rules 2021 to strengthen the regulatory framework to address harms arising from synthetically generated information (SGI), including deepfakes and AI-generated content. "Strengthening of timelines for compliance, including reduced timelines for removal of unlawful information upon actual knowledge upon valid reasoned intimation from the Appropriate Government or court orders (timeline reduced from 36 hours to 3 hours) and for grievance redressal (including special categories such as nudity/impersonation etc) (timeline reduced from 72 hours to 36 hours and 24 hours to 2 hours for sensitive matters, respectively)," the statement said. IT Rules mandates the significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs), platforms wi

AI-powered cognitive warfare demands a new defence of public trust

Information warfare has moved beyond fake news to shaping how we think. Building cognitive resilience is now as important as safeguarding our borders

Kejriwal seeks explanation as Meta restricts social media account in India

AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his social media account has been restricted in India and questioned Meta over the reason behind the restriction. In a post on X, Kejriwal said enquiries at Meta's India office revealed that his account had been restricted and was unavailable in India. He claimed company officials did not provide any reason for the restriction or explain how it could be removed, while emails sent by him had received only routine acknowledgements. There was no immediate response available from Meta on the matter. Kejriwal also shared a screenshot of his account status page showing the message, "Unavailable in some locations". Calling the lack of clarity and response from the company "pretty bad service", he said in his post, "Don't bow down to the prime minister, else he will allow you to run only his own account in India.

Govt to question Meta global team on algorithmic bias, role in public order

Meta's global team, which has been summoned by the government after the social media company restricted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post, will be questioned on issues around algorithmic bias and their role in public order, sources said on Friday. Sources further said that Meta's global team is expected sometime in the middle of next week. Sources said Meta's global team will be "categorically" asked to clarify issues around algorithmic bias, how their algorithm operates, and the company's role in public order. The team will also appear before a parliamentary panel. The move assumes significance as the government earlier this week summoned a top Meta executive after Modi's recent post addressing India's youth and promising stringent measures against paper leaks was briefly restricted on Facebook. While the US-headquartered social media giant attributed the incident to a technical glitch and apologised, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) found

Most Australian teens still on social media 3 months after ban began: Study

Children's continued ​social media use took place even as account ownership declined ​to 42% from 52%, with 'statistically significant' reductions across YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok in particular

Perfect Dream Girl: A bold critique of tech, desire, and gendered power

Readers can expect discussions ranging from the influencer economy, deepfakes to AI girlfriends, algorithmic desire, & the male loneliness epidemic - all packaged as witty letters to a faceless man

Senior Meta executives to visit India over content moderation policies

Visit follows the temporary takedown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Facebook post, with the IT Ministry set to seek details of Meta's moderation processes

Delhi Police registers FIR over abusive posts against PM, seeks details

Delhi Police has registered an FIR against several social media handles for allegedly posting "derogatory, malicious and defamatory content" targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought complete details of account holders from X, official sources said on Wednesday. The case was registered by the Special Cell's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit, which also issued notices to X and directed it to remove or disable access to identified posts and preserve all related electronic records for investigation, the sources said. X, formerly Twitter, has been directed to remove or disable access to the content within three hours of receiving the notices while ensuring that all relevant data, logs and subscriber information are preserved, they said. The FIR against seven to eight handles has been filed under Sections 351(3) (criminal intimidation), 353(2) (circulating false information, rumours, or alarming news-including via electronic media) and 356(2) (whoever defam

Ministries told to form quick response teams to fight fake online content

2-hour deadline set; memes, videos preferred

Parliamentary panel summons Meta, Google, X over social media regulation

A Parliamentary panel has summoned representatives of major social media platforms, including Instagram, along with officials of the ministries of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Home Affairs, on August 3 to discuss regulation of social media and digital platforms. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said the panel has called representatives of Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Google, X (formerly Twitter) and Snapchat to explain how they protect the privacy of women, children, farmers, rural residents, labourers and the general public, and ensure public order. The meeting comes days after social media, particularly Instagram, was extensively used by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to publicise and mobilise participants for its student protest at Jantar Mantar. The demonstrations, which were held over the NEET-UG paper leak and other issues, drew widespread attention online, ..

Best of BS Opinion: Nationwide youth protests push govt on to the backfoot

Shyam Saran and Shekhar Gupta examine the crisis in education, R Gopalakrishnan calls for a new enterprise model, and Devangshu Datta weighs social media age bans

SC bars posting court proceedings on social media without prior permission

The Supreme Court on Friday barred posting, reposting or uploading of audio-video recordings of court proceedings on social media and other digital platforms without prior permission of the concerned secretary general of the apex court or the registrar generals of the high courts. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana also sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea raising the misuse of live-streaming and circulation of videos of court proceedings on social media. "As an interim measure, it is directed that there shall be no extraction, modification, dissemination posting, reposting and uploading of audio-video visual recordings of judicial proceedings on social media or other digital platforms without prior permission of the secretary general of this court or the registrar general of the jurisdictional high courts," the bench said. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioner, highlighted the misuse of videos of court