Government

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed the blocking of 22 YouTube-based news channels, of which four are from Pakistan, for allegedly spreading fake news to mislead viewers. This is the first time that action has been taken against the Indian YouTube-based news publishers since the notification of the IT Rules, 2021 in February last year, it said.In an official statement, the ministry said that it issued an order on Monday to block 22 YouTube channels, three Twitter accounts, one Facebook account and…

Over 600 social media accounts of the central government were hacked in the last five years, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Responding to a query on the hacking of government's Twitter handles and e-mail accounts, the minister said since 2017, 641 such accounts have been hacked.Altogether 175 accounts were hacked in 2017, 114 in 2018, 61 in 2019, 77 in 2020, 186 in 2021, and 28 so far this year, he said in a written reply.Thakur said the information was made available by…

Twitter said on Tuesday it will not recommend Russian government accounts to users as part of a rule change affecting accounts run by states which limit access to the open internet and are engaged in armed interstate conflict.The social media company also said it would now require the removal of posts depicting prisoners of war posted by government or state-affiliated media accounts. Ukraine's government has posted content featuring prisoners of war on social media in recent weeks.Russia has battled big tech companies to…

Twitter handles of the Uttar Pradesh government and the state information department were hacked briefly on Monday, officials said.Both the accounts have been restored.The verified Twitter handle of the Government of Uttar Pradesh (@UPGovt), which has 2.7 million followers, was hacked for around 10 minutes, a senior official told PTI.A fact check Twitter handle operated by the information department - @InfoUPFactCheck - was also hacked.The @InfoUPFactCheck handle is followed by over 24,000 people.In the early hours of…

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (aka PUBG), and Battlegrounds Mobile India (aka BGMI) are the same, and Tencent has misled the Indian government, a non-profit organisation called Prahar has claimed. Calling for a ban on BGMI/ PUBG, a top executive of the NGO has alleged that there is no company called Krafton India. BGMI is an Indian version of PUBG Mobile, which was launched exclusively for players in India after the government banned PUBG Mobile in the country. The battle royale game is developed and published by…