New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed its Registrar General to transfer the sum paid by media houses as fined for disclosing the Kathua rape case victim’s name to the Victim Compensation Fund maintained by Jammu & Kashmir State Legal Services Authority.
The amount is for donating the victims or family of deceased victims of sexual violence.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said: “The Registrar General of this court is directed to transmit the amounts so deposited by respondents no.8, 28 (two media houses) and by other respondents (media houses) in the present case, if any such amount is still lying with the court, to the Victim Compensation Fund maintained by the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Authority for disbursement of funds to the victims/families of the deceased victims of sexual violence.”
In the 2018 brutal gangrape was followed by the victim’s murder, the High Court in the same year took by itself the decision against media houses for their reports disclosing the victim’s name, violating Sections 23 and 228A of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
“The manner of reporting of the incident is also against the public justice,” said the bench.
The court had issued notices to over 15 media houses and directed them to deposit Rs 10 lakh each.
With time, more media organisations were asked to pay the compensation.
Earlier, the court had called the media houses’ move of displaying the photograph of the victim “unfortunate” and “extremely distressing”.
The incident dates back to January 10, 2018, when the eight-year-old had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. A week later, her body was found in the same area.
Washington is trying to “demonize Russia” and “fuel the Ukrainian crisis” by accusing Moscow of crimes against humanity, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov said on Sunday.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Saturday that Washington has formally determined that Russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine, in an address at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
In a message on the social media network Telegram, Antonov said: “We consider such insinuations as an attempt, unprecedented in terms of its cynicism, to demonize Russia in the course of a hybrid war, unleashed against us. There is no doubt that the purpose of such attacks is to justify Washington’s own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis,” he said.
Harris had said Russia is responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against Ukraine’s civilian population, committing war crimes — as the administration formally concluded last March — and illegal acts against non-combatants. She cited evidence of execution-style killings, rape, torture and forceful deportations.
The Biden administration will continue to assist Ukraine in investigating these alleged crimes, she said, pledging to hold “to account” the perpetrators and “their superiors.”
“Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown: justice must be served,” Harris added.
Nicola Sturgeon is resigning as Scotland’s first minister in a move that stunned her pro-independence party and fired the starting pistol on the race to succeed her.
The Scottish National Party leader — who has led the party and the country’s devolved government since 2014 — made the shock announcement at a hastily arranged press conference Wednesday from her official residence in Edinburgh.
Citing the personal toll of the job and a desire to “free” her party to pick its own Scottish independence strategy, Sturgeon, 52, said it had been a “privilege beyond measure” to serve as first minister.
But she confirmed she had asked the SNP’s top brass to “begin the process of electing a new party leader” in the coming days.
Sturgeon will, she said, “remain in office until my successor is elected,” but made clear she believed it was now the “right time” to move on.
“I am proud to stand here as the first female and longest serving incumbent of this office, and I’m very proud of what has been achieved in the years I’ve been in Bute House,” she said.
“However, since my very first moments in the job, I have believed that part of serving well would be to know almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else. And when that time came to have the courage to do so, even if — to many across the country and in my party — it might feel too soon.”
Sturgeon — a vocal opponent of Brexit who has argued that Britain’s departure from the bloc warrants another Scottish independence referendum — is the longest-serving Scottish first minister, and has led her party to successive election victories there.
She remains one of the most popular figures in the drive to separate Scotland from the United Kingdom through a fresh referendum.
But the SNP leader has been embroiled in a row with the British government in recent weeks, after it blocked a bill aimed at reforming Scotland’s gender self-declaration laws. She has also been under fire over the housing of a convicted rapist, who changed their gender, in a women’s prison. That decision was later reversed.
Sturgeon denied that her exit was “a reaction to short-term pressures,” saying her near three decades in frontline politics had toughened her to “navigating choppy waters.”
Instead, she said, the move had come from “a deeper and longer term assessment” of her ability to give the top job its all, as well as a desire not to bind the party’s hands as it mulls its strategy for securing another independence referendum.
Personal and political
Sturgeon has long argued for the next Westminster general election to be used as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence, but with a crucial SNP conference aimed at hashing out an independence strategy slated for next month, the outgoing first minister said she wanted her party to be free “to choose the path that it believes to be the right one, without worrying about the perceived implications for my leadership.”
While Sturgeon stressed she was “not expecting violins,” she also cited the toll of leading Scotland through the COVID-19 pandemic, and said a first minister “is never off duty.”
Sturgeon pointed out that she had been a member of the Scottish Parliament since the age of 29, and in government since the age of 37.
“I’ve literally done this in one capacity or another for all of my life,” she said. “I’ve been Nicola Sturgeon the politician for all of my life.” Now, she said, she could perhaps spend “a little bit of time on Nicola Sturgeon, the human being.”
‘Civil war’
An SNP official said the news had “completely taken aback” staff at the party’s headquarters — and predicted “the beginning of a bitter civil war and factional splits on the next level” in the wake of her exit.
“This is just a completely wild situation,” they said ahead of the conference. “Literally nobody at HQ, even at senior levels — apart from [Sturgeon’s husband and SNP Chief Executive] Peter Murrell, I presume – was briefed.”
The SNP’s ruling national executive committee will set out a leadership election timetable “over the coming days,” Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond as first minister in 2014 after the SNP failed in its first referendum bid to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom.
The pair later fell out spectacularly as Salmond faced sexual assault charges, of which he was cleared after a two-week trial.
This developing story is being updated. Emilio Casalicchio and Matt Honeycombe-Foster contributed reporting.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Kolkata: Visva Bharati university authorities have issued a show-cause notice to one of its students after the latter supported Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on social media over the current row where the university Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty has accused the economist of unauthorised occupation of the university land in excess of his legal entitlement.
The student, Somanath Sou, is an active member of the CPI(M)’s student wing Students’ Federation of India (SFI). Recently he made a post on social media condemning the attitude of the university authorities towards Sen in the current row.
He said in his post that this is nothing but unnecessarily harassing the globally acclaimed educationist and economist. According to him, certain elements are constantly advising the vice-chancellor that by harassing Sen he would get the support of the BJP.
According to Sou, from the land records it is clear that Sen is legally entitled to the entire land including the 13 decimals of land which the university authorities claim to be held by him beyond his legal entitlement. “The real truth must be revealed since in this process an aged and globally acclaimed educationist is being harassed unnecessarily. The university authorities should come out with papers in support of their baseless claims,” he wrote in his social media post.
Soon after that he was slapped with the show-cause asking him why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for being vocal against the university despite being a student there. In the notice Sou has been warned of strong disciplinary action if he repeats a similar action in the future.
On February 11, Sen’s advocate issued a legal notice to the university authorities asking the latter to tender a public apology for their derogatory comments in connection with the continuing row over 13 decimals of land occupied by him. “The university authorities should apologise for making such derogatory comments. Else appropriate legal action will be taken,” said Sen’s counsel Gorachand Chakroborty.
Hyderabad: The issue of media interference into the lives of celebrities and their children or the ‘starkids,’ has been a matter of concern among stars and their fans. In recent years, there have been several instances of media personnel chasing and hounding the children of famous actors, which makes them uncomfortable and causes distress. One such incident happened with Tollywood actor Mahesh Babu’s son Gautam Ghattamaneni in Hyderabad recently.
Gautam was chased by the media during the Formula E race in Hyderabad that took place in the city last week. While the star kid was walking towards the event venue, he was approached by a group of media personnel who were trying to take his interview. Despite his attempts to avoid them, the media chased him for some distance, causing him distress and leaving him nervous.
A video of the incident is going viral on social media, sparking outrage among fans who have expressed their anger towards the media for their intrusive behavior. It was clear from the video that Gautham was uncomfortable answering the questions.
Check below how people reacted to this incident:
“Hey, do you have any sense? You are a reporter; is this called journalism? Shame on you!”
Don’t make him feel so scared.
Why are you chasing the boy and making him feel uncomfortable?
“IAS Officer Abhishek Singh Suspended by Uttar Pradesh Government for Extended Absence”
The government of Uttar Pradesh, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has suspended IAS officer Abhishek Singh for being absent from work without explanation. Singh, a 2011 batch officer in the UP cadre, has been missing for 82 days and has not informed the department of personnel and appointment in the UP government.
Singh was previously removed from election duty as an observer in the Gujarat elections in November for posting pictures with a vehicle bearing his designation. He is well known for his presence on social media, having acted in the Netflix series “Delhi Crime Season 2” and in music videos by popular artists B Praak and Jubin Nautiyal. He has over 30 lakh followers on Instagram.
The suspension was issued by Additional Chief Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi on Wednesday, with the consent of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. A separate charge sheet is expected to be issued against Singh soon.
It is worth noting that the UP government has cancelled the leave of all IAS and IPS officers until February 15 in preparation for the Global Investors Summit.
Singh comes from a family of high-ranking officers, with his wife Durga Shakti Nagpal being an IAS officer in the UP cadre and his father Kripa Shankar Singh being a former IPS officer in UP. Before joining the IAS, Singh served in the police force in Mumbai. He has faced previous suspensions, including one in 2014 for alleged misbehavior with a Dalit teacher, and another in October of last year for extended absence. He was on deputation in Delhi from 2015 to 2018, and was sent back to the UP cadre in March 2020 but failed to report.
San Francisco: Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new feature which will allow users to share up to 100 media within the chats, on iOS beta.
With the new feature, beta users can now select up to 100 media in the media picker within the application, which was earlier limited to only 30, reports WABetaInfo.
This feature is useful as users will finally be able to share entire albums, making it easier to share memories and moments.
The ability to share up to 100 media within the chats is available for some beta testers after installing the latest update of WhatsApp beta for iOS from TestFlight app and is expected to roll out to more people over the coming days, the report said.
Last week, it was reported that the messaging platform was rolling out this feature on Android beta.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp was reportedly rolling out longer group subjects and descriptions on iOS beta, making it easier for users to better describe groups.
New Delhi: The government has told a parliamentary committee that it “may not be desirable” to set up a unified media council as each media platform was unique and distinctive in its own way with a self-regulatory mechanism, prompting the panel to make a fresh push for such a framework with statutory powers to enforce advisories.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by Shiv Sena member Pratap Jadhav, had suggested to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to have a media council, contending that there were limitations in enforcement of advisories issued by the Press Council of India and News Broadcasting Standards Authority.
In an action-taken report on the subject ‘Ethical Standards in Media Coverage’, the committee said it had opined that the ministry should explore the possibility of establishing a media council encompassing print, electronic and digital media which should be equipped with statutory powers to enforce its orders where required.
The committee noted that the ministry had informed it that there were separate regulatory mechanisms for different media platforms.
“… Each platform is unique and distinctive in its own way and therefore unifying and merging them under one regulatory framework may not be desirable,” the committee said, citing the submission made by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
“However, in light of the rising need for inter-sectoral coordination due to emergence and convergence of new technologies, the committee would like to reiterate and recommend the ministry to explore the possibilities for having unified Media Commission/Body/Council with separate wings and regulatory mechanism for print/electronic/digital media,” the committee said.
It said such a framework can have a holistic view of the media and ensure inter-media parity in handling the similar cases of unethical media coverage.
The committee pointed out that the Press Council of India too had sent a proposal to the ministry regarding the constitution of a media council encompassing various media platforms.
It recommended to the government to ensure that all private television channels were part of a self-regulatory body.
It noted that out of 926 private channels, 309 channels were members of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council, while 41 channels were members of News Broadcasters Federation – Professional News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBF-PNBSA). It noted that 576 television channels were not members of any self regulating body.
With the effective takeover of personal communication by the internet-powered cell phone, hundreds of fortune hunters and vested interests are generating content for a diverse audience. Offering the flip side of the virtual world, Fahd Khan reports the ways and means of the new fortune-hunting and the costs society pays on a long-term basis
social media
Over the years, the cell phone supposed to help mankind in real-time better communication has emerged as a key player in reshaping life. Connected with the internet, it has already made obsolete a huge electronic equipment basket comprising nearly 50 items from GPS to a watch. It has taken the sheen away from newspapers and is currently threatening the library. Smartphones have already taken a huge sliver of the classroom as the banking sector is the new target. Covid19 triggered work-from-home culture has taken the crowd out of the offices and online governance has done away with the time-space matrix.
Regardless of how anti-social it might be making its users and which kind of vision and orthopaedic issues it may lead to, the small device is a huge time killer.
Never ever in human history was this much data generated or consumed at a mass level as it is happening now. Kashmir, with more than 90 per cent of cell phone penetration, is as good on this parameter as any developed nation could be. But, what are we consuming?
Ubaid Taj’s Hello Hish might have taken the internet by storm in Kashmir and people of all age groups have bombarded social media with lip sync reels without even recognizing what the words represent or what the music is trying to serve or promote. They just jump into the bandwagon wishing their reels to go viral and become instant celebrities.
Level Playing Field
Cell phones have been a disruptive intervention. It demolished the routine hierarchies and opened multiple sectors for almost everybody. Now people go directly to the virtual world with their artworks, music, photography, writings and music.
They can make significant incomes while lounging at home in luxury. Writing blogs and running websites might formerly be the only way to make money online, but with India’s digital revolution and the introduction of fast internet (now 5G), that is no longer the case. From being a consumer to a prosumer, there has been a shift.
People used to merely consume content, but now easy access to the internet has enabled them to generate content too. Content consumers are prosumers now. More and more people are trying their luck on social media to obtain notoriety and recognition, but only a handful of people are able to achieve it.
Now, users decided what to watch and that decides who earns what. A general trend in Kashmir, unlike the rest of the world that consumes knowledge, is that users consume a lot of data, apparently categorised as entertainment and music
Now, there is a bulk of platforms that can help prosumer to reach out to a host of consumers. It is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and a host of other applications. Chinese TikTok’s lip sync service in 2016 took the world by storm. Even those living in remote areas started making videos, and some of them even rose to fame overnight and started making money. However, as a result of the standoff between India and China, the app was blocked in India. Taking advantage of the deficit, Instagram developed Reels that allow users to create 60-second videos based on popular music and filmy dialogues.
The Eco System
Everyone who has achieved success on social media has a similar slow growth trajectory as it all begins with the creation of an account, after which they are influenced by other creators and decide to try their luck by making lip-sync videos. If this strategy proves successful, they eventually decide to start a YouTube vlogging channel where they make regular day-to-day videos and let their viewers into their personal lives. However, when they shift from lip sync to producing content, the problem arises.
YouTube content creators have started posting videos where they discuss their incomes, show purchasing luxury goods and automobiles with money they earned online, and generally cajole viewers into doing the same.
Kashmir witnessed a surge in content creators, and there are several individuals who have achieved online fame. Singer Ishfaq Kawa, who will make his Bollywood debut soon, began his career by uploading songs. Kawa has established himself as a household brand and now makes substantial earnings from his YouTube channel, which has about 500000 members.
Almost all the new ‘singers’ connect with the masses through the internet, leaving their traditional counterparts to the age-old practices.
Fame and Fortune
YouTube is a huge platform for these content creators so is Facebook. In India, a video with 10 lakh views might trigger a business of US $800 to US $2500. The earnings depend on the geographical location the views come from, the quality of the videos, the niche and the type of adverts displayed on the channel.
This advantage has inspired a large number of Kashmiris to launch their own YouTube channels and make content creation a career. Some of them are into comedy and some into “singing” and there is a lot of trash too. Some of them imitate famous artists from other regions of the world by producing videos that are identical to theirs. It is being seen as a surefire method to have fame and money. It is a simple formula: “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”
There are some huge successes and Kawa is one of them. This is despite the prevalence of stereotypes that usually gets invoked when a female content creator attempts to chase a virtual goal.
Kashmiri Kalkharabs is a young group of satirists and stand-up comedians having nearly 900 thousand followers. Bakus, another video creator apparently inspired by the roast-content creator Carryminati, has 324 thousand subscribers, all of whom have been garnered either by making roasting others or by creating cringe songs. It makes fun of other’s content to make its own profile, a legitimate virtual world reality.
Amir Majid, a content creator from Jammu, has 23 lakh subscribers on YouTube where he posted his rags-to-riches story. In a video, he shows how he was living in an old house and how YouTube changed his life forever. The YouTuber explores different places and also arranges meet-ups with his fans in different parts of India. In one of his fans’ meet up in Srinagar, thousands of fans gathered to meet him. People were in such large number that police was called in to control the mob. His channel is also evident in how much fortune he has made through the platform.
Kashmiri singer Reshi Sakeena who at many times was compared to Dhinchak Pooja, the queen of cringe pop music, now dances at private parties and uploads content. Not everyone can pull off what she does: sing off-key, miss every beat, and still win millions of fans. On YouTube, all of Sakeena’s videos have accumulated millions of views and she has earned well.
Off late, pranks have come to Kashmir. Popularised by some private FM radio studios, pranksters were able to capture the audience’s interest right away. However, as time went on, people began to lose interest since the content was drab and old. There has been an explosion of such videos on the internet where creators create self-humiliating videos that might make one feel uncomfortable at times. While some content makers do it for enjoyment, others do it to gain notoriety and make money from their films. These creators’ primary goal is to get popular online.
Amir Bhat has a Facebook page where he plays pranks on others and has earned 100 thousand followers.
You-tuber Idrees Mir is famous Vlogger with around 900 thousand followers on YouTube and Facebook. He recently made a trip to two foreign destinations and uploaded videos buying automobiles and tech equipment on regular basis, indicating that he earns well.
Risking Lives
Some creators even risked their life for creating content. Murtaza Rafiq known by the name of The EmmInErr recently crossed a milestone of 100 thousand subscribers on his channel and uploaded a video where he spent a night camping in an ordinary summer tent at Gulmarg. Accompanied by the two young children, his video was uploaded with the caption Surviving in Snow for 24 hours in minus 13.
Kashmir’s winter wonderland, Gulmarg is mostly the coldest place where temperatures dip to minus 15 degrees during the night. This act of creating content could have proved fatal for the trio as they didn’t carry proper equipment.
There was also another video creator who jumped into the frozen Nigeen Lake for his video, a media report said.
‘Virtual Politics’
With formal politics squeezed to a level, a group of youth have emerged as “virtual politicians’. They create and upload cringe content presuming it is politics but the people consume it as comedy.
The comic character of Fayaz Scorpio surfaced on the internet during the Covid19 pandemic soon after he became Deputy Sarpanch of Dandoosa (Rafiabad). His rise was his infatuation and an uncanny demand for a Scorpio vehicle. Now, he has become a household name in Kashmir. His clumsy speaking and mannerism have turned him into a laughing stock in Kashmir, and all of his online videos receive millions of views. Scorpio’s fame is so established that people rope him for advertising their products.
His contemporary is Mohammad Shafi, who calls himself Babar Sher, the lion. He moves from one party to another, is driven in a Scorpio vehicle and is always well-dressed. He jumps into any crowd and becomes its “leader” and is known for his theatrics and interesting “statesmanship”. His commentary is sure to make the video viral.
While their virtual presence indicates the tragedy of politics in Kashmir, the fact remains that the people barely watch formal politics the way they see this content. Unlike formal serious politics, these rib-tickling capsules give people moments of pleasure and reasons to laugh at the shift in the space-time matrix.
The Music
In the recent past, one had to be a serious singer or musician, spending years of his life practising to get in the zone of being good, just to be taken seriously and to get a launch by any Music label. Now, anybody can make music and have access to free tools, auto tuners, vocal plugins, melody, and free beats, and it hardly matters whether one sounds good or bad. On top of that, literally, anyone can sing, shoot an album on their smartphone and upload it to Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
This is the tragedy the entertainment and culture sector shares with the media. Anybody with a smartphone and microphone in hand is seen as a “journalist”. The coverage of a murder case in Pampore, where a brother-in-law strangled his sister-in-law to death for rebuffing sexual assault, is evidence of how low video creators have descended. In a viral video on social media, journalists can be seen asking the slain victim’s daughter to describe what transpired, but she seemed hesitant to do so concerning the age of the victim.
Promoting Vulgarity
Musaib Bhat is one of the social media “influencers” whose musical content has been consumed a lot and was very well appreciated. He initially began creating TikTok videos by lip-syncing on well-known Kashmiri tunes. His video gained popularity among all age groups, especially for his copying of female conversations on phone. Apparently, he is attempting to make the virtual world his career.
Recently one of his ‘songs’ Excuse Me, featuring transgender Manu Bebu hogged the headlines for its questionable content. He is being accused of glorifying eve-teasing and objectifying women. One of the lines of his ‘song’ says: When you leave home for the tuition, Everyone including the baker and Milkman swoons at you.
Despite his public apology, his video is still accessible and earning.
The promotion of sexism and the objectification of women through songs and films is not limited to Musaib alone.
Ubaid Taj has released only two songs to date and both of them were watched by millions. Both legitimise the objectification of women. The songs show a man trying to ‘own’ a woman and objectifying her with or without her wish. It dubs a woman a biscuit.
There is another content creator by 7afazul on Instagram who started a new trend of reels in which a person is being asked “che chuy zanh love gomut” (have you ever fallen in love?) His reels have huge views. His popularity has given birth to a similar channel on Instagram where they ask people if they have even fallen in love and shockingly some videos have surfaced where children or mentally challenged people were not spared. Instagram is quite popular among teens and youth groups.
Response
“These songs are good for providing enjoyment, but apart from gathering views and followers, every content creator has certain social duties,” a female university student said. “Everything has an effect, and these song lyrics encourage eve-teasing, which breeds crime and other social evils.
Another girl, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the impact is being seen when girls are being referred to as “biscuit” in real life now. “Tragedy is that future generation is getting impacted. One of the song’s lines, which is subtly advocating eve teasing, is being repeatedly hummed by my 8-year-old cousin.”
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he promised an era of openness for the social media platform. Yet that transparency will soon come at a price.
On Thursday, the social-networking giant will shut down free and unfettered access to reams of data on the company’s millions of users. As part of that overhaul, researchers worldwide who track misinformation and hate speech will also have their access shut down — unless they stump up the cash to keep the data tap on.
The move is part of Musk’s efforts to make Twitter profitable amid declining advertising revenue, sluggish user growth and cut-throat competition from the likes of TikTok and Instagram.
But the shift has riled academics, infuriated lawmakers and potentially put Twitter at odds with new content-moderation rules in the European Union that require such data access to independent researchers.
“Shutting down or requiring paid access to the researcher API will be devastating,” said Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University, who has spent years relying on Twitter’s API to track potentially harmful material online.
“There are inequities in resources for researchers around the world. Scholars at Ivy League institutions in the United States could probably afford to pay,” she added. “But there are scholars all around the world who simply will not have the resources to pay anything for access to this.”
The change would cut free access to Twitter’s so-called application program interface (API), which allowed outsiders to track what happened on the platform on a large scale. The API essentially gave outsiders direct access to the company’s data streams and was kept open to allow researchers to monitor users, including to spot harmful, fake or misleading content.
A team at New York University, for instance, published a report last month on how far wide-reaching Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election had been by directly tapping into Twitter’s API system. Without that access, the level of Kremlin meddling would have been lost to history, according to Joshua Tucker, co-director at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics.
Twitter did not respond to repeated requests to comment on whether this week’s change would affect academics and other independent researchers. The move still may not happen at all, depending on how Twitter tweaks its policies. The company’s development team said via a post on the social network last week it was committed to allowing others to access the platform via some form of API.
“We’ll be back with more details on what you can expect next week,” they said.
Yet the lack of details about who will be affected — and how much the data access will cost from February 9 — has left academics and other researchers scrambling for any details. Meanwhile, many of Twitter’s employees working on trust and safety issues have either been fired or have left the company since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late October.
In Europe’s crosshairs
The timing of the change comes as the European Commission on Thursday will publish its first reports from social media companies, including Twitter, about how they are complying with the EU’s so-called code of practice on disinformation, a voluntary agreement between EU legislators and Big Tech firms in which these companies agree to uphold a set of principles to clamp down on such material. The code of practice includes pledges to “empower researchers” by improving their ability to access companies’ data to track online content.
Thierry Breton, Europe’s internal market commissioner, talked to Musk last week to remind him about his obligations regarding the bloc’s content rules, though neither discussed the upcoming shutdown of free data access to the social network.
“We cannot rely only on the assessment of the platforms themselves. If the access to researchers is getting worse, most likely that would go against the spirit of that commitment,” Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s vice president for values and transparency, told POLITICO.
“It’s worrying to see a reversal of the trend on Twitter,” she added in reference to the likely cutback in outsiders’ access to the company’s data.
While the bloc’s disinformation standards are not mandatory, separate content rules from Brussels, known as the Digital Services Act, also directly require social media companies to provide data access to so-called vetted researchers. By complying with the code of practice on disinformation, tech giants can ease some of their compliance obligations under those separate content-moderation rules and avoid fines of up to 6 percent of their revenues if they fall afoul of the standards.
Yet even Twitter’s inclusion in the voluntary standards on disinformation is on shaky ground.
The company submitted its initial report that will be published Wednesday and Musk said he was committed to complying with the rules. But Camino Rojo — who served as head of public policy for Spain and was the main person at Twitter involved in the daily work on the code since November’s mass layoffs — is no longer working at the tech giant as of last week, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions within Twitter. Rojo did not respond to a request for comment.
American lawmakers are also trying to pass legislation that would improve researcher access to social media companies following a series of scandals. The companies’ role in fostering the January 6 Capitol Hill riots has triggered calls for tougher scrutiny, as did the so-called Facebook Files revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, which highlighted how difficult it remains for outsiders to understand what is happening on these platforms.
“Twitter should be making it easier to study what’s happening on its platform, not harder,” U.S. Representative Lori Trahan, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement in reference to the upcoming change to data access. “This is the latest in a series of bad moves from Twitter under Elon Musk’s leadership.”
Rebecca Kern contributed reporting from Washington.
This article has been updated to reflect a change in when the European Commission is expected to publish reports under the code of practice on disinformation.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
