India unveils tougher rules for social media

Modi Facebook social media India

NEW DELHI: India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate big social media firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to tighten control over Big Tech firms.

The rules come after Twitter ignored orders to drop content on farmers’ protests, fuelling the goverment’s zeal, dating from 2018, to clamp down on dissent.

The new measures will require big social media companies to set up a grievance redressal mechanism and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement, the government said in a news statement.

The government said the guidelines in its code of digital media ethics were needed to hold social media and other companies accountable for “misuse and abuse”.

Social media firms should be “more responsible and accountable,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology, told reporters in outlining the rules.

A detailed version of the guidelines is to be published later and take effect three months after that, the government said. It did not specify the date, however.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Twitter declined to comment.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported the draft of the rules, which give companies a maximum of 36 hours to remove content after they receive a government or legal order.

Prasad also told reporters the rules would oblige the companies to reveal the originator of a message or posting when asked to do so through a legal order.

Tech firms are coming under tighter scrutiny worldwide. Facebook faced a global backlash last week from publishers and politicians after it blocked news feeds in Australia in a dispute with the government over revenue-sharing.

That prompted last-ditch changes by Australia in a law passed on Thursday to ensure Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc pay media companies for content, a step that nations such as Britain and Canada want to follow.

India’s rules will also require video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime to classify content into five categories based on users’ age, the government said.

The post India unveils tougher rules for social media appeared first on ARY NEWS.



from Business – ARY NEWS https://ift.tt/2Pc5M51

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

74% of improvement works completed in three stations of Dubai Metro Red Line

Image
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has completed 74% of a project to improve the entry points of three stations on the Dubai Metro Red Line namely the Dubai Internet City Station, Dubai Marina Station and the UAE Exchange Station. The selection of these stations was based on several criteria including the ridership, the number of users from People of Determination, the population density of the area, the geographical distribution of the surrounding areas, and the number of intermodal mobility journeys. The project aims to increase the capacity of stations to improve customers experience and improve the entry/exit points of stations to cater to the requirements of supply and demand in the area. The project will also contribute to transforming Dubai into a friendly city for people of determination and enhancing the connectivity with the metro stations. These improvements, which are funded by partners, will augment RTA’s revenues by creating additional space for commercial use. T
Read more

KE issues clarification on power tariff hike request

KARACHI: Karachi-Electric (KE) has clarified that it has requested the NEPRA for a tariff hike, which will have Rs0.49/kWh average impact of Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) of 6 months.  The KE spokesperson further clarifies, “the request made to NEPRA is in line with the mechanism given in KE’s Multi-Year Tariff whereby changes in fuel prices, generation and power purchase mix are passed through to customers along with certain annual adjustments.” “The major impact in monthly Fuel Cost Adjustment is due to increase in global prices of furnace oil, and RLNG. In line with KE’s request, NEPRA has scheduled a public hearing to allow Monthly Fuel Cost Adjustments (FCA) for the months of January 2021 to June 2021, and Quarterly power tariff variation for March 2021. Subject to the NEPRA Authority’s approval, the actual overall average impact of requests will be only PKR 0.49/kWh,” the spokesperson further added. The KE Spokesperson further adds, “similarly, the quarterly tariff variations inc
Read more

Govt committed to build strategic reserves of essential commodities: Tarin

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has presided over the meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) held at the Finance Division, ARY News reported on Monday. Secretary Finance briefed the meeting about the slight uptick in weekly SPI, which increased by 0.03 per cent during the week under review. Prices of 06 items witnessed a decline and 22 remained stable. The committee also reviewed the monthly inflation trend and noted that the CPI, which is 8.4% for July 2021 has declined by 1.3% as compared to the last month i.e. 9.7% in June 2021. The National Price Monitoring Committee also reviewed the prices of wheat, sugar, pulses, chicken and other essential food items in the country. The Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research updated the committee about the wheat procurement process and apprised that an order for the purchase of 220,000 tons of wheat has already been placed. While taking stock of the situation, the NPMC
Read more