Social Media Watch Thread

The Strategic Issues & International Relations Forum is a venue to discuss issues pertaining to India's security environment, her strategic outlook on global affairs and as well as the effect of international relations in the Indian Subcontinent. We request members to kindly stay within the mandate of this forum and keep their exchanges of views, on a civilised level, however vehemently any disagreement may be felt. All feedback regarding forum usage may be sent to the moderators using the Feedback Form or by clicking the Report Post Icon in any objectionable post for proper action. Please note that the views expressed by the Members and Moderators on these discussion boards are that of the individuals only and do not reflect the official policy or view of the Bharat-Rakshak.com Website. Copyright Violation is strictly prohibited and may result in revocation of your posting rights - please read the FAQ for full details. Users must also abide by the Forum Guidelines at all times.
Prem Kumar
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4215
Joined: 31 Mar 2009 00:10

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Prem Kumar »

95% of these accounts are business-spam: where businesses buy a list of names (lakhs) and hit them with messages like "Buy this pill" or "Enroll for this course". WhatsApp regularly bans these accounts, but they spring up again by using different SIM cards
Kaivalya
BRFite
Posts: 430
Joined: 19 Oct 2018 21:51

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Kaivalya »

^^^

That is the social media company's problem or cost of doing business. I don't see much difference between "buy this pill" messaging vs "political garbage" messaging. Either way paid low cost information garbage is disseminated by a select anonymous few.

The law is beginning to work
Manish_P
BRF Oldie
Posts: 5383
Joined: 25 Mar 2010 17:34

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Manish_P »

Not social media but a big (data) company.

Sarkars all over the world can and will always find ways to tighten the screw on baniyas, when they so choose.. be they Ma (jack) or Baap (bezos)

US sues Amazon for selling dangerous products
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says Amazon is selling hazardous products to its customers. The federal safety watchdog is suing Amazon to stop.

Among the products cited in the suit are carbon monoxide detectors that fail to alarm, numerous children's pajamas that could catch fire and nearly 400,000 hair dryers that could electrocute people if dropped in water.

The action is another sign of a far more aggressive stance by the CPSC this year. In the past the agency has often pulled its punches rather than push a court fight with companies it believes sell dangerous products.

The products cited are not sold directly by Amazon (AMZN) — they're sold by third parties using Amazon's platform. Many of those companies that sold the dangerous products cited by CPSC are foreign, and the CPSC has limited ability to force a recall of their products if they are found to be hazardous.

The CPSC said cracking down on Amazon is the only way to keep consumers safe from these products.
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

One wonders if someone will fly a drone over Danish Siddiquis funeral and transmit pictures live or sell them at Getty.

Poetic justice if that happens.
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Any consequences on Twitter yet? GoI seems to have accepted defeat and left it to let it do whatever it wants and accepted that following Indian laws is optional.
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

Tanaji wrote:One wonders if someone will fly a drone over Danish Siddiquis funeral and transmit pictures live or sell them at Getty.

Poetic justice if that happens.


तालिबान ने पत्रकार दानिश सिद्दीकी को घुटनों के बल बिठाया तथा उसकी पीठ में गोली मारकर हत्या कर दी. दानिश सिद्दीकी जीवनभर हिंदुओं को फासिस्ट बताता रहा लेकिन हिंदुओं ने कभी उसे परेशान नहीं किया. लेकिन जब दानिश का सामना असली फासिस्टों से हुआ तो दो दिन में ही मार दिया गया !!
via @ArunDeshpande20·6h


Image


twitter

This is woke concocted BS.

never heard of any jehadi, anywhere, issuing a "statement of regret"
The #Taliban has issued a Statement of regret in the unfortunate killing of #DanishSiddqui @dansiddiqui ! They say they are unaware of his Death or May be the tragedy happened in Crossfire between the #Afghanistan Forces and the Taliban
via@zafarsareshwala · 22h

His corpse pic shows blood flowing from behind. No bruise or scratch from front except his earlier injuries of days ago. Basic forensics. All press cadre carry papers. They knew who he was, murdered him execution style. U still want to apologise for stadium executioners, go ahead
via@arshiaunis
chaitanya
BRFite
Posts: 218
Joined: 27 Sep 2002 11:31
Location: US

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chaitanya »

Hi Gurus,

Just had an idea - instead of banning Twitter (or any company violating Indian law), what if it is penalized by throttling access to the site? In other words, GoI reserves the right to remove net neutrality for any company violating Indian laws, and in fact, it reserves the right to make it really hard for them to get bandwidth. From my non-expert understanding, this seems more doable as it removes a right granted by GoI and is not touching any constitutionally granted privileges. I feel twitter, netflix, amazon, etc. would have a much harder time arguing their case (we were banned vs. our websites are now really slow). It would also have the added benefit of really frustrating users and strongly incentivizing their users to switch to competitors. I feel like a strong, clever penalty is needed in order to control both SM and the whole data localization issue.
jamwal
BR Mainsite Crew
Posts: 5727
Joined: 19 Feb 2008 21:28
Location: Somewhere Else
Contact:

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by jamwal »

Governments should not be allowed to control internet infrastructure at all. What if congress is in power and they ban this site or some anti-congress site they don't like.
rsingh
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4451
Joined: 19 Jan 2005 01:05
Location: Pindi
Contact:

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by rsingh »

^^^^
May be we disband IB and RAW as well. God knows how future non BJP govts are going to use them. We need proper checks and controls according the law.
chaitanya
BRFite
Posts: 218
Joined: 27 Sep 2002 11:31
Location: US

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chaitanya »

jamwal wrote:Governments should not be allowed to control internet infrastructure at all. What if congress is in power and they ban this site or some anti-congress site they don't like.
Agreed that congress having this kind of power could be scary. Any penalty should be sanctioned by judges, not the government, which is kind of what is happening right now with Twitter. Courts have clearly found Twitter in violation, but they do not have a penalty to apply. The laws need teeth...
jamwal
BR Mainsite Crew
Posts: 5727
Joined: 19 Feb 2008 21:28
Location: Somewhere Else
Contact:

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by jamwal »

IB & perhaps RAW are already misused by politicians in power and there need to be protocols to prevent it too. Internet by itself should be neutral for everyone. Thing like terrorism and sedition can be countered, but censorship and bans are not the answer. Indians are addicted to bans as solution to everything.
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

jamwal wrote:IB & perhaps RAW are already misused by politicians in power and there need to be protocols to prevent it too. Internet by itself should be neutral for everyone. Thing like terrorism and sedition can be countered, but censorship and bans are not the answer. Indians are addicted to bans as solution to everything.
a country doesn't run on stoopide gandhian principles, whatever they may say in public, there is a realpolitic that is ever dominant and always in play.

Don't let any foreigner ride roughshod over India. We have seen this happening too mant times and over many centuries and still, we are obsessed with the same old "moral" debate.

we are the losers for not having learned the valuable life lessons that we have repeatedly and forcibly been taught over the centuries by alien cultures.

Deal with each situation as you can and with each adversary as you must, based solely on past experience and results and in any negotiation, never leave anything on the table for the adversary.

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshita
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

chaitanya wrote:
jamwal wrote:Governments should not be allowed to control internet infrastructure at all. What if congress is in power and they ban this site or some anti-congress site they don't like.
Agreed that congress having this kind of power could be scary. Any penalty should be sanctioned by judges, not the government, which is kind of what is happening right now with Twitter. Courts have clearly found Twitter in violation, but they do not have a penalty to apply. The laws need teeth...
other countries have throttled internet speeds to counter the big media.

what's wrong with us.

absolutes are always philosophical and mostly wishful while specifics are political and practical, always catering to the need of the hour.

In India, Indian laws are supreme, just like US laws are supreme in the US. Have you come across any Indian company operating in the US refusing to follow US law. The consequences would be both harsh and immediate with absolutely no long winded warnings or prolonged cajoling by a stoopide law/IT minister

the media companies as well as the biden administration and the deep state are all gaming us to see how far they can go and they will use these tactics to bring modi down during the next elections, if they cannot force him out of office in the interim.

the trump example is there for all to see but nobody wants to look.

This is the very same result that the BIF wants for India, a regime change that was ensured via the manipulated ballot box using big data and big media companies to target and influence voters. This is the new con and a tested scam that successfully removed a sitting US president who was up for re election.

there is always the option of overruling the judiciary. When it happened in the shahbano case, everyone tucked in their langotiyas and went home quietly. Shahbano was a really poor, aged and destitute widow whose fundamental rights were viciously trampled upon by the mighty state openly in cahoots with her ill wishers and yet none of our high flying heroes even thought of coming to her rescue.

is it acceptable, if tomorrow, the armed forces were told, by some high flying, ahimsa loving, paki pasand nutcase, not to counter the pakis or the cheenis at the borders.

what happens then

It all finally comes down to two nation building principles:

the making of omelets presupposes the requirement for eggs to be broken and,

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshita.
jamwal
BR Mainsite Crew
Posts: 5727
Joined: 19 Feb 2008 21:28
Location: Somewhere Else
Contact:

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by jamwal »

I am referring to misuse of intelligence agencies by politicians for personal vendetta and illegal activities like mentioned in books by Dhar, Singh and RVS Mani. That should not happen.
I have no problems with domestic and international surveillance, espionage, assassinations type of stuff.

Twitter must be penalised for their two faced actions. They claim to be just a platform for expression and they still censor ideologies they don't like. They also actively work against local laws. Any company which does this should face penalties. I am not in favour of restricting basic internet infrastructure for this purpose.
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

jamwal wrote:I am referring to misuse of intelligence agencies by politicians for personal vendetta and illegal activities like mentioned in books by Dhar, Singh and RVS Mani. That should not happen.
I have no problems with domestic and international surveillance, espionage, assassinations type of stuff.

Twitter must be penalised for their two faced actions. They claim to be just a platform for expression and they still censor ideologies they don't like. They also actively work against local laws. Any company which does this should face penalties. I am not in favour of restricting basic internet infrastructure for this purpose.
jamwal ji,

sadly, some wheat will always go with the chaff, as far as, the misuse of intelligence agencies by politicians for personal vendetta or whatever.

it is only to be expected. it is the same the world over and to hope or think otherwise may not be practical. men are moral, mostly out of compulsion and very often not by choice. gandhi or any other "mahatma", religious, social or civilizational were the same, and their carefully built up images are starting to unravel

But we still need to do whatever is necessary to stop the big data guys.

if not one way, then another way has to be found.

these big media f@rt$ shiver in their langotes when it comes to cheeni.

if cheeni can control them by market size, we can, at the very least, use our laws to cut off their testimonials.

there is always a mutuality of interests where people like Dhar, Singh and RVS Mani are concerned with some exceptions like the guys mentioned. if the mountain does not go to you know who, then you know who will come to the mountain.

someone somewhere has the axe and some others elsewhere the grindstone. The twain always manage to meet and the axe gets sharpened without fail to fall where it may.

that story is almost as old as time itself and especially true of today.

the unsaid problem with big data or big media companies is that the deep state is backing all of them.

credit card details are more useful to intelligence agencies, possibly even more useful than to the card companies themselves. This data is processed in a variety of ways, by a variety of players to extract intelligent data suiting their parameters.

criminals are profiled and they are often tracked using card usage data or phone data, so why not Indian citizens who are of interest to jehadis and secret agencies outside of India
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

twitter comment

one wonders if shampooboy has had some tiny bits of his anatomy knocked off recently. This creep is turning out to be a woke gundu chaatukar and a liberandu jehadi apologist.

the numbers too are in the commie approved ratio
111 mosques

4 churches

1 temple

0 hospitals

Indian liberalism in a single tweet.
59 years ago, this Hindu man built a mosque in Kerala funded by a Christian. “The idea of the brotherhood of man was born in me“, says 85 year old Gopalakrishnan, who has built 111 mosques, four churches & a temple in the true spirit of Indian pluralism:
via@ShashiTharoor
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Peripherally related but

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/is ... ar-AAMlrNL

So an ice cream company decides to be woke and has stopped selling its wares in Israeli controlled Palestinian Territories. On the face of it, it’s up to the company, if it wants to limit its profits, that’s their call and it’s board of directors. But it is something to be aware of and another tool that will be used in India.
Pratyush
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12187
Joined: 05 Mar 2010 15:13

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Pratyush »

How does something this get executed in a country like India.

Consumer durable goods are dominated by Korea and Japan.

FMCG European, American and domestic company.

IT is the only real area of vulnerability. Will the American government block Indian access to Intel or AMD products?
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Ben and Jerrys is American.

The issue is not the actual financial impact as no big company will let go of a market of India size. It is about the middling companies that will jump on the band wagon to make a “statement” that will be immediately picked up by media as the mudi should do rejine.
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

khujliwals free electricity scam is now the butt of jokes




Founder of....

Image via@MajorPoonia
chetak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 32224
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chetak »

just some gyan for folks who may want to do some basic research on pegasus or know a little more about it.


Image
kit
BRF Oldie
Posts: 6278
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 18:16

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by kit »

chetak wrote:twitter comment

one wonders if shampooboy has had some tiny bits of his anatomy knocked off recently. This creep is turning out to be a woke gundu chaatukar and a liberandu jehadi apologist.

the numbers too are in the commie approved ratio

59 years ago, this Hindu man built a mosque in Kerala funded by a Christian. “The idea of the "brotherhood" of man was born in me“, says 85 year old Gopalakrishnan, who has built 111 mosques, four churches & a temple in the true spirit of Indian pluralism:
via@ShashiTharoor
indeed , looks like the temple was an afterthought :mrgreen:
venkat_kv
BRFite
Posts: 459
Joined: 05 Dec 2020 21:01

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by venkat_kv »

Tanaji wrote:Any consequences on Twitter yet? GoI seems to have accepted defeat and left it to let it do whatever it wants and accepted that following Indian laws is optional.
Tanaji,
Can we wait for some time before pronouncing victory or defeat. It seems people are more moved by govt must ban so and so entity and put people behind bars for my personal satisfaction/pet peeve verification.

the new minister has taken charge. this may drag on for a while as the govt is looking to kill the snake and not break the stick so to speak. the least we can do is wait and watch.

when the wheel of justice starts turning it will crush everyone in its path with whatever comeuppance, doesn't matter if they are mnc or puny company, indian or american, common pandu on the street or the ga*du in the american boardroom.

The photo journalist gunned down by taliban should be shown as an example of divine work, for spreading bile against Hindus, to put some fear of god in the rest of the desert cults.
venkat_kv
BRFite
Posts: 459
Joined: 05 Dec 2020 21:01

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by venkat_kv »

chetak wrote:just some gyan for folks who may want to do some basic research on pegasus or know a little more about it.


[img]......[/img]
Removing the image and responding,
Chetak Saar,
This write up has me asking questions. Anyone who has followed this more closely can can also shed some light on it.
It says that the malware was installed/sent out for first time in 2016 and Apple fixed it with their software patches. So is this something from 2016 and doesn't have any relevance now?

It says x number of journalists and y number of activists phone numbers figured in the list, but do they have confirmation that the phones have been infiltrated?

All the recent write ups in the media are highlighting the point that activists, journalists are targeted, but doesn't get how it was mitigated or issues sorted if it was ever done.
m_saini
BRFite
Posts: 767
Joined: 23 May 2020 20:25

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by m_saini »

EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app
The European Commission has told its staff to start using Signal, an end-to-end-encrypted messaging app, in a push to increase the security of its communications.

The instruction appeared on internal messaging boards in early February, notifying employees that "Signal has been selected as the recommended application for public instant messaging."
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

UP police notice to Twitter quashed by HC

https://indianexpress.com/article/india ... p-7418825/

The tactic of Twitter is clear: given the complete inability of GoI to impose any punitive costs on Twitter for non compliance, Twitter will drag this out in various courts of the land. Even the token action an individual state takes will be diluted and watered down to be ineffective. Drag this out longer till 2024 when refine change will occur in their view.
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

venkat_kv wrote:
Tanaji,
Can we wait for some time before pronouncing victory or defeat. It seems people are more moved by govt must ban so and so entity and put people behind bars for my personal satisfaction/pet peeve verification.

the new minister has taken charge. this may drag on for a while as the govt is looking to kill the snake and not break the stick so to speak. the least we can do is wait and watch.

when the wheel of justice starts turning it will crush everyone in its path with whatever comeuppance, doesn't matter if they are mnc or puny company, indian or american, common pandu on the street or the ga*du in the american boardroom.

The photo journalist gunned down by taliban should be shown as an example of divine work, for spreading bile against Hindus, to put some fear of god in the rest of the desert cults.
Fair enough on wait and watch, but to be fair this problem has been brewing for a while. This has a definite possibility of influencing the 2024 elections so should be taken seriously. No one is suggesting a Twitter ban, there are other methods available that GoI can adopt but isn’t.
fanne
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4282
Joined: 11 Feb 1999 12:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by fanne »

Tanaji,
In all seriousness can you please suggest a solution/course of action that is implementable?
vijayk
BRF Oldie
Posts: 8760
Joined: 22 Jun 1999 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by vijayk »

fanne wrote:Tanaji,
In all seriousness can you please suggest a solution/course of action that is implementable?
They can force them data localization, algorithm disclosures, fines. They are choosing not to to
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Fanneji,
  • GoI is not a banana republic government and it has multitude of levers that it can push that raise the cost of non compliance for Twitter significantly. Twitter is a publicly traded company and its first objective to its share holders is to make a profit. Jack Dorsey may have his biases, but there will be a limit as to how much liability his Board will be willing to bear. A determined GoI can make this unacceptable.

    As I said the goal is not to ban Twitter. Here are a few options that are well within scope of current laws:
  • Make it easy for people to claim damages: GoI itself has stated as per reports that Twitter has lost protections as its itermediary due to non-compliance of IT act. So make it easy for people to claim damages, by setting up fast track courts with special judges to decide on the awards. Come up with guidelines on the same. Then encourage people (not officially, but through party spokesperson) to file cases. Simplify the procedure and have such courts in various cities. Twitter will have to pay to fight these cases at the very least, and pay up damages if they lose
  • Do more scrutiny on posted content: Related to above. Twitter has a problem of people posting p*rn, abusive threats, pe*philia etc etc. Increase scrutiny of such content, and file criminal cases against Twitter as it is no longer an intermediary
  • Enhanced scrutiny of its accounts: Use the Registrar of Companies to go over each i and t of its financial flows. File more cases , enforce temporary bans on how it transfers monies. if it makes money out of advertising, put temporary holds. AT the very least Twitter will have to spend money going to courts on this. More costs and inconvenience.
  • Bring in data localisation laws: Force Twitter to keep data of Indian users in India. Increases its cost of doing business.
  • Publicity: Related to criminal content in the earlier point. Shout from the roof tops and question publicy why Twitter enables p*rn and p*dophilia and threats. Pick 4-5 juicy ones (with consent of victims) and have spokesperson, opinion writers write in detail how their lives were ruined by Twitter. Engage Swathi Maliwal of DCW types to investigate Twitters roles in crimes against women.
If a nobody like me can come up with so many options, imagine what a baboo in a ministry can come up with.

In short, there is plenty of options, just a lack of will for fear of log kya kahege from this Government. And thats why it makes us upset....
fanne
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4282
Joined: 11 Feb 1999 12:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by fanne »

Thanks Tanaji.

I don’t think baboos will come with any plan or they are any smarter that ‘we’ are. Most likely they are beholden to Slow moving ossified group of people, some of them anti Modi and yet some who may have been paid to act against the interest of Mother Bharti. Yet there are some good people.

Having made that disclaimer, can you or anyone write more? We then can send it across through twitter etc.
chanakyaa
BRFite
Posts: 1723
Joined: 18 Sep 2009 00:09
Location: Hiding in Karakoram

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chanakyaa »

I understand that the following may not be the objective of this dhaaga, but given the debate on Twitter/Social media, I thought I should post here to highlight the power of digital colonization. From Twitter's perspective, there is no such thing as "bad publicity".

While Indians were busy arguing on the power of twitter, fighting/arguing with fellow Indians (hindu vs. muslim, vampanthi/non-vampanthi, right wing/left wing, BJP/Congi+ etc. etc.) twitter made more money and Twitter as a company and it's stock is not even listed in India. Something to think about. East India Co. had similar success century ago...

Twitter posts fastest revenue growth since 2014 in pandemic rebound
...
Twitter's market value increased to $57 billion
Revenue: $1.19 billion vs. $1.07 billion
Monetizable daily active users (mDAUs): 206 million vs. 206.2 million as expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount.
Twitter’s revenue grew 74% year over year in the quarter, according to a shareholder letter, with the company citing “a broad increase in advertiser demand.”
The number of monetizable daily active users, or Twitter users who view advertising on the site, grew by 11%, Twitter said
And, FaceBook's valuation increased to $1.1 trillion (India's foreign reserve ~$610 million)
m_saini
BRFite
Posts: 767
Joined: 23 May 2020 20:25

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by m_saini »

^ That's very interesting. Was reading somewhere that Twitter's India profits almost doubled in 2019 and have been growing ever since. But they don't make as much money in India as compared to their global profits. Something like $1.1 billion worldwide and "only" around $7 million from India.

Might explain why they don't give two hoots about GoI's threats.
chanakyaa
BRFite
Posts: 1723
Joined: 18 Sep 2009 00:09
Location: Hiding in Karakoram

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by chanakyaa »

I definitely appreciate your attempt to attribute reason why Teeter "allegedly" doesn't give a f*^$@k to GoI because the revenue from India is not meaningful. Unfortunately, I believe, that is not the case. There is a reason why teeter's CEO J@ck D. is ceo of two publicly listed companies (second one is Square, which is a real corporation). It is because teeter is not and was never intended to be a typical corporate company. J@ck D. handed over the welfare of teeter to "you know who...". and that is why he has moved on to being the ceo of another "real" publicly listed company. And, that is why they don't give a f*^$@k, b'cas it is run by "you know who..."
m_saini
BRFite
Posts: 767
Joined: 23 May 2020 20:25

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by m_saini »

b'cas it is run by "you know who..."
Lord Voldemort..? :mrgreen:
vimal
BRFite
Posts: 1902
Joined: 27 Jul 2017 10:32

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by vimal »

I suggest everyone watch movie "the social network" if you haven't already. Social media is successful only if there are enough people stirring the pot all the time. The more you engage the more powerful it gets like the proverbial demon that feeds on your anger.
Tanaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4513
Joined: 21 Jun 2000 11:31

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Two more:
Vayutuvan
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12060
Joined: 20 Jun 2011 04:36

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by Vayutuvan »

venkat_kv wrote:when the wheel of justice starts turning it will crush everyone in its path with whatever comeuppance, doesn't matter if they are mnc or puny company, indian or american, common pandu on the street or the ga*du in the american boardroom.
Counterexample: Anderson of United Technologies wrt Union Carbide Bhopal gas leak. :-?
venkat_kv
BRFite
Posts: 459
Joined: 05 Dec 2020 21:01

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by venkat_kv »

Vayutuvan wrote:
venkat_kv wrote:when the wheel of justice starts turning it will crush everyone in its path with whatever comeuppance, doesn't matter if they are mnc or puny company, indian or american, common pandu on the street or the ga*du in the american boardroom.
Counterexample: Anderson of United Technologies wrt Union Carbide Bhopal gas leak. :-?
Vayutavan Saar,
that is a very good counter example, but I believe he had made his way out by the time any meaningful decision had been made by the courts.

It still shows the limitations of the power of the Indian state or the self-imposed, self restraint of the same. I want to get some more info on what the govt is thinking, before pronouncing that it does or does not take actions dues to various opinions (of log kya kahenge, soft nation, banana republic ityadi).

it seems people are filling the blanks with their pet peeves/thought process in the absence of any info that comes from the sources they trust or from the govt.
venkat_kv
BRFite
Posts: 459
Joined: 05 Dec 2020 21:01

Re: Social Media Watch Thread

Post by venkat_kv »

Tanaji wrote:Fanneji,
  • GoI is not a banana republic government and it has multitude of levers that it can push that raise the cost of non compliance for Twitter significantly. Twitter is a publicly traded company and its first objective to its share holders is to make a profit. Jack Dorsey may have his biases, but there will be a limit as to how much liability his Board will be willing to bear. A determined GoI can make this unacceptable.

    As I said the goal is not to ban Twitter. Here are a few options that are well within scope of current laws:
  • Make it easy for people to claim damages: GoI itself has stated as per reports that Twitter has lost protections as its itermediary due to non-compliance of IT act. So make it easy for people to claim damages, by setting up fast track courts with special judges to decide on the awards. Come up with guidelines on the same. Then encourage people (not officially, but through party spokesperson) to file cases. Simplify the procedure and have such courts in various cities. Twitter will have to pay to fight these cases at the very least, and pay up damages if they lose
  • Do more scrutiny on posted content: Related to above. Twitter has a problem of people posting p*rn, abusive threats, pe*philia etc etc. Increase scrutiny of such content, and file criminal cases against Twitter as it is no longer an intermediary
  • Enhanced scrutiny of its accounts: Use the Registrar of Companies to go over each i and t of its financial flows. File more cases , enforce temporary bans on how it transfers monies. if it makes money out of advertising, put temporary holds. AT the very least Twitter will have to spend money going to courts on this. More costs and inconvenience.
  • Bring in data localisation laws: Force Twitter to keep data of Indian users in India. Increases its cost of doing business.
  • Publicity: Related to criminal content in the earlier point. Shout from the roof tops and question publicy why Twitter enables p*rn and p*dophilia and threats. Pick 4-5 juicy ones (with consent of victims) and have spokesperson, opinion writers write in detail how their lives were ruined by Twitter. Engage Swathi Maliwal of DCW types to investigate Twitters roles in crimes against women.
If a nobody like me can come up with so many options, imagine what a baboo in a ministry can come up with.

In short, there is plenty of options, just a lack of will for fear of log kya kahege from this Government. And thats why it makes us upset....
Tanaji Saar,
let me play the devil's advocate here just to flesh this out a bit. i am strictly doing this to see if people have purely thought this out or are just scratching the tip of the iceberg.
1. the intermediary status is gone and if the courts strike down cases filed by individuals/law enforcement, i believe the govt will bring in amendments based on the basis of the court ruling. ( what laws were effected/ impinged and how to cover them subsequently). if all the cases are being ruled in favor of the twits then look for the govt to bring in amendments in the month of March/April of next year at the very earliest.

2. the issue of scrutiny is easy to say, but neither the govt. (as in who - individual or an officer) is going to sit there monitoring every post done by a everyone from twitter. The govt can frame laws based on complaints from people. I believe these laws were also brought in based on the increased complaints that were seen from people about lack of grievance addressable mechanisms and not with any desire to tame or cut twitter down to size.
the current govt has always maintained they are in the process of governance and not for settling scores. you need individuals within the govt that can file a court case and take it to its logical conclusion, not someone like susu swamy using them for increasing his popularity.

3. the issue with respect to p*rn and p*dophilia is titter can easily say that they have removed the offending post after a week (maybe earlier it was selective for each wing) and still claim they have taken action or maybe by law they will do it in the prescribed 24-26 hours after the complaint was filed.

4. i am not sure how monies are transferred right now, but i am willing to guess that they have followed all the laws in establishing the intermediary companies for transferring their company. i think data localization laws will do more good for the country and a kick in the gonads than trying to go after the money transfer process.

5. The shouting from rooftops about twits enabling p*rn and p*edophilia will only work when a large section of the twitter user also believe this and multiple such complaints were ignored by the twits managing the content. Or there has to be a high profile case for the govt to swing into action.
There are threats to woman pretty much everyday on twitter depending on the side they are arguing for or against and we haven't seen any reaction from actual users who seem to have normalized this behavior. Its kind of like the corruption cases of the UPA, it needed large section of people to come together and various other things as well to vote them out in elections, we are still a few ways away from that.

As I said in the post above to Vayutavan Saar also, I am more interested in the govt thinking/thought process behind their actions to see if they are or not going to initiate any action against the twits.
Post Reply