Over a month after Facebook said it would launch a digital library of political advertisements in India, Google has announced it will do the same. The tech giants seem to be seeking tighter control over political advertising on their respective platforms as India approaches its next general election, expected this spring.
Over six months after WhatsApp decided that, in India, a message can be forwarded to only five recipients at once, the company has imposed the same restriction on its users worldwide.
Ahead of India’s general election, slated for this spring, top political parties are pulling out all the stops to gauge the national temperature on various policy issues. From attendance at political rallies to social media conversations—no area is too trivial to analyse when it comes to understanding party workers’ or voters’ moods.
Indians are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of fake news.
Look out, new year’s diets: Indians will only go so far when it comes to giving up their favourite dishes.
Facebook is ramping up its efforts to fight fake news ahead of India’s general elections, which are expected this spring. The social network expects to soon appoint “key personnel” to the India office, The Economic Times reported in an interview with Katie Harbath, Facebook’s global politics and government outreach director.
Government officials in India have often boasted that Aadhaar, the controversial national biometric identity programme, has saved the country billions of dollars by eliminating fraudulent beneficiaries from welfare schemes. To support their point, many—most recently finance minister Arun Jaitley—have cited a 2016 World Bank report (pdf) that estimated potential yearly savings from Aadhaar to be $11 billion (Rs77,000 crore) per year.
The Reserve Bank of India yesterday (Jan. 08) announced the creation of a five-member committee to facilitate the “deepening of digital payments” in the country. For many, the committee’s composition reignited longstanding concerns.
Over the past few years, Indians have deftly found their way around the government’s multiple attempts to ban adult-content websites, but the loopholes may now be getting plugged indirectly.
Media and social media will be major battlegrounds for political parties in the run-up to the 2019 general elections in India.
Smoking a specific strain of weed might help you win friends, according to the police in India’s national capital.
After almost a decade since its launch, India’s controversial biometric identity programme, Aadhaar, finally got a measure of clarity and legitimacy in 2018—but not before a few egregious breaches were exposed.
Days after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) issued a notification authorising 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor, or decrypt digital communications, the Indian Express newspaper has reported today (Dec. 24) that the government is seeking to propose amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act. The new changes seek to trace and access “unlawful” online content, the paper reported.
This winter holiday, more and more Indian travellers seem to be chasing cheap chills.
Facebook and Twitter announced yesterday (Dec. 20) that they had removed up to 30 accounts for spreading coordinated misinformation from Bangladesh, just 10 days ahead of the country’s national election.
Vegetarians seem to be flocking to food-delivery app Swiggy.
New digital technologies could bring over $150 billion (Rs10.7 lakh crore) to India’s GDP by 2021. So, many Indian professionals are choosing to learn new skills in order to cash in on this economic transformation.
Technology seems to be tripping up the electoral process in the world’s largest democracy with disturbing frequency.
The Indian government is getting hungrier and hungrier for Twitter user data.
The FIFA World Cup, the price of bitcoin, and a winking actress were among the favourite topics India searched for on the internet in 2018.
This post has been updated.
Spreading fake news, bribing media outlets, and exploiting caste tensions are all tactics that Indian political parties have for long been accused of using to win elections. Now, even lay Indians are getting to try their chops at them—in a board game.
For companies, valuing privacy isn’t always just about respecting user rights—it’s often plain business sense.
India’s patent office seems to be getting busier by the year.
