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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Regulating Social Media Platforms

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-10-31 09:41:28

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

The government of India has issued amended rules for social media companies. These ask the platforms to make "reasonable efforts" to prevent information or news that is fake or misleading from being transmitted through their platform. This is a step in the right direction. Traditional media is regulated and such media companies take reasonable steps to prevent dissemination of fake or misleading news. Social media needs to be similarly regulated and must also have a robust self-regulation mechanism. It is not enough for these platforms to argue that they are just allowing user generated content. They need to be held accountable in the same manner as the traditional media for they are following the same advertisement-backed revenue model, without - importantly - the necessary expenditure for gathering news.

Interestingly, despite denials, it has been found that social media platforms create algorithms that favour content that is likely to cause conflicts since it has more chances of going viral. They also indulge in censorship as per their policy. Hence, it is necessary to end the immunity granted to them on the plea of just publishing user generated content because the users are mostly unverified and the content is also from unverified sources and could be part of devious agendas.

In this regard, it should be made mandatory for social media platforms to allow only verified users to post on the platform. The government had told Parliament in March this year that it is not making user verification mandatory for social media platforms as that will raise important questions about matters of privacy and interest of safety and trust. But given the fact that unverified and anonymous users can create unlimited mischief on social media by transmitting fake or misleading news, morphed pictures and videos or abusing others without accountability (yes they can be traced through their IP address but that is in case a complaint in lodged), it is necessary to put a name and picture to go with the chosen nickname of the user. In any case, if someone decides to be part of a democratic public discourse on social media, he or she must stand up for who and what they are instead of pontificating, creating mischief or hurling abuses and threats through faceless accounts. 

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