Page 18 - Social Media

What's in store for Twitter and its spats with Indian govt in the Musk era?

Business Standard does a recap of the face-off between the microblogging site on one side and the Centre and MeitY on the other

Users will soon be able to pick a Twitter version they like better: Musk

Elon Musk on Saturday said that Twitter users will soon be able to pick a version of the microblogging platform they like better, like a moving maturity ranking

'IT rules give 72 hours but remove illegal content as fast as possible'

IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said while social media norms require platforms to remove illegal content within 72 hours of being flagged, he feels the timelines are "too long" and platforms should takedown such content "as fast as possible". Chandrasekhar said the IT Ministry had been keen on prescribing a 24-hour timeline for removal of illegal content (as specified under rules) given that "virality and velocity" of misinformation tends to be much higher, but then finally settled for 72 hours after wide consultations. "Frankly I am of the opinion that 72 hours is too long...it was 24 hours during consultation, but it was widely felt that this is still early days and let us keep it at 72 hours and then progressively as the platforms gain capacity and capability, we will create a shorter window," the minister said. His message to social media platforms: "Letter of IT rules says 72 hours but the spirit should be as fast as possible". The complaints around illegal conte

'Scope of appellate panels for social media grievance to be announced soon'

IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said the modalities defining the structure and scope of Grievance Appellate Committees will be worked out soon, and hoped that their formation will, in fact, discourage social media platforms from continuing with their "casual" and "tokenism" approach to address user grievances. The government on Friday tightened IT rules, paving the way for the setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters. The government says that the "broken" grievance redressal mechanism currently being offered by intermediaries (read social media platforms) and lakhs of messages flagging users' concerns around unresolved complaints had forced its hand. "Grievance Appellate Committee will be an important institution in the coming days for internet and intermediaries. We will make an announcement about its structure, .

Govt to start with one or two GACs, to present structure, working soon

Several big tech companies had expressed reservations over the GACs, which can overturn the decisions taken by grievance officers of social media companies

Elon Musk to form a council to advise on lifting any Twitter bans

Musk, whose $44 billion deal to take the social network private was completed Thursday, had indicated previously that he thought Twitter's content moderation standards were too strict

Govt has its way on social media grievance redress; GACs to be formed

This comes with MeitY notifying on Friday the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022, after five months of deliberations

Musk takes over Twitter: A list of banned accounts which may get restored

Ever since Musk took over Twitter, the internet was divided- while many supported his buyout deal, speculating more inclusion and free speech, others sound caution

Expect Twitter to comply with local rules, says govt after Musk takeover

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter will not change India's expectation that it will comply with the country's rules for such companies, a government minister told Reuters

Appellate panels to be set up for resolving social media users' grievances

The government on Friday tweaked IT rules to pave way for setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters. These committees will be able to review content moderation decisions by social media companies like Meta and Twitter. The 'Grievance Appellate Committees' will be set up within three months, according to a gazette notification on Friday. Incidentally, the move comes at a time when the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, has completed his USD 44-billion takeover of Twitter, placing the world's richest man at the helm of one of most influential social media apps in the world. The IT rules changes have been in the works for months, though, ever since users red-flagged instances of digital platforms acting arbitrarily. The latest move will arm the users with a grievance appeal mechanism in the form of appellate committee

Govt to set up social media grievance appellate committees within 3 months

The committees will be established with the aim of providing users of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter with an alternative dispute resolution method

For Musk, overspending on Twitter deal was easy; now comes the hard part

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk must prove why he believes that Twitter is worth 10 times that amount and turn around a social media platform that he has spent months ridiculing

Twitter CEO among top executives departing as Elon Musk takes over

Twitter Inc CEO Parag Agrawal is among executives planning to depart as Elon Musk completes his $44 billion deal to take over the social network

Grievance appellate committee for social media complaints in offing

The government plans to set up appellate committees to redress grievances that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other issues, officials said. While tech giant Meta (which owns Facebook and WhatsApp) and microblogging site Twitter have been pushing for a self-regulated grievance appellate framework, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wants adjudications to be done by three-member grievance appellate committees. The panels will be constituted by tweaks in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Amendments may provide for social media platforms to acknowledge within 24 hours user complaints and resolve them within 15 days. The complaints could range from child sexual abuse material to nudity to trademark and patent infringements, misinformation, impersonation of another person and content threatening the unity and integrity

Maturity level of some social media users not up to mark, says Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday observed that the maturity level of some internet users is not up to the mark and they may believe in anything they come across. The court made the observation while hearing a petition by US-based microblogging site, Twitter against the Union Government's orders issued to take down certain accounts, tweets and links on its platform, in national and public interest. Justice Krishna S Dixit said, "Maturity level of a section of society is not up to the mark. A section of people believe whatever comes." Senior advocate Ashok Haranahalli, arguing on behalf of Twitter submitted that providing a notice to those whose accounts are taken down was a procedural requirement but this was not being done. Communicating reasons is advisable so that persons whose right is affected can raise an appeal, he argued. "Merely because it is against our interest should we block a foreign handle?" the senior counsel asked and cited the example of the farmers protests

Facebook announces 2022 Community Accelerator participants in India

Four-month programme provides selected community leaders of Facebook groups with training, mentorship and funding

Meta's Instagram reaches 2 billion users, closing in on Facebook

The company disclosed the number during an otherwise-gloomy earnings report Wednesday, when a shaky ad market clouded Meta's forecast and sent its shares tumbling

In call with bankers, Musk pledges to close Twitter deal by Friday

Elon Musk pledged to close the acquisition of Twitter Inc. by Friday in a video conference call with bankers helping fund the deal

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg should focus on US midterms, not the Metaverse

Meta CEO Zuckerberg could start by doing what thousands of managers before him have done, and reconsider his tasks

India most significant country for new things across our platforms: Meta

India is the most significant country for Meta in terms of all the new things that feature across its platforms -- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, a top company official said. Meta has also provided a great opportunity for numerous brands and millions of creators to express their creativity and build audiences in India through short-form videos, said Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships for Facebook India (Meta). "India is a very critical market for our platforms from multiple dimensions. A lot of new product learning and incubation is done here, and 'Reels' is an example of that... this is the market where we have done the most amount of testing of new product features. "India is the most significant market where the focus is for all the new things that we are doing across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp," he told PTI. Chopra was speaking on the sidelines of Meta's annual 'Creator Day', which was recently held for the first time in Kolkata. The event celebrates ...