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Social media in India face opposite pressures

Friday, August 31, 2018

Subject

Social media regulation in India.

Significance

The information technology minister has told the Facebook-owned private messaging service WhatsApp to establish a formal corporate presence in India, including a local office to deal with grievances and complaints. With the exponential growth of social media across India’s population, concern has grown about their use to spread rumours designed to incite sectarian and caste violence.

Impacts

  • Domestic electronic news media are dominated by a few large players, reducing opportunities for independent fact checking.
  • Social media platforms will see their regulatory compliance costs rise in India.
  • India has a poor record on cybersecurity and legal protections for online personal privacy are inadequate; improvements will be slow.

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