Twitter to block users tweeting misinformation about Covid-19 vaccine

 

Twitter has reported to mark Tweets that may contain deceiving data around Covid inoculations and will for all time suspend rehashed wrongdoers.

The miniature contributing to a blog stage has presented a strike framework against such deceptive tweets and at least five strikes will bring about perpetual suspension of the record.

"We accept the strike framework will assist with teaching general society on our strategies and further diminish the spread of possibly destructive and deceiving data on Twitter, especially for rehashed moderate and high-seriousness infringement of our guidelines," the organization said in a proclamation late on Monday.

Since presenting the Covid-19 direction, Twitter said it has taken out in excess of 8,400 Tweets and tested 11.5 million records around the world.

While one strike will cause no record level activity, two strikes will prompt a 12-hour account lock; three strikes in an additional 12-hour account lock; four strikes in a 7-day account lock and at least five strikes implies perpetual suspension of the record.

Marks will initially be applied by Twitter colleagues when they decide content abuses the stage's arrangement.

"We will likely ultimately utilize both robotized and human survey to address content that disregards our Covid-19 immunization falsehood rules," Twitter said.

Twitter will start with English-language content first and utilize this equivalent interaction as it attempts to extend to different dialects and social settings over the long run.

Marks will show up in the client's set presentation language and may connection to curated substance and official general wellbeing data or the Twitter Rules.

Twitter seeks public help as verification badges return in early 2021

 

Twitter, which delayed its public confirmation measure or that tricky Blue Badge three years back, on Tuesday declared to relaunch check, including another public application measure, in mid 2021.

Before it returns the check cycle that saw a lot of discussions in the recent years, the miniature writing for a blog stage is requesting the general population to share input on a draft from its new confirmation strategy.

"Calling for public criticism has become a significant piece of our approach improvement measure since we need to guarantee that, as an open help, our standards mirror the voices of the individuals who use Twitter," the organization said in a proclamation.

"In the event that you like to Tweet your criticism, we'll be tuning in there, as well. Utilize the hashtag #VerificationFeedback. The public input period begins today, November 24, and proceeds until December 8," Twitter educated.

Twitter plans to present the last arrangement on December 17.

Three years prior, the stage delayed the public check program in the wake of hearing criticism that it felt subjective and confounding to numerous individuals.

After a year, the organization deprioritised this work further to zero in on securing the honesty of the public discussion around crucial points in time like the 2020 US political race.

"From that point forward, we haven't been clear about who can get checked and when, why a record may be unconfirmed, or being confirmed," Twitter conceded.

Presently, the organization has recognized six sorts of records in its draft strategy as Notable Accounts - government; organizations, brands and non-benefit associations; news; diversion; sports and activists/coordinators and other powerful people.

As indicated by the proposed strategy, "the blue confirmed identification on Twitter tells individuals that a record of public premium is bona fide. To get the blue identification, your record must be prominent and dynamic."

FB, Twitter CEOs defend handling of disinformation in US election

 

The CEOs of Facebook and Twitter have affirmed before an incredible Senate Judiciary Committee of Congress where they protected their treatment of disinformation in the intently battled US official political race.

Facebook CEO and originator Mark Zuckerberg told officials on Tuesday that in front of the November 3 political decision, the web-based media goliath attempted the biggest political decision trustworthiness exertion by any privately owned business as of late.

Inside and out, I accept this was the biggest political race trustworthiness exertion by any privately owned business as of late. This is the thing that individuals expect of us, Zuckerberg told the Senate Judiciary Committee which held a conference on Censorship and the 2020 Election.

I'm happy that from what we've seen up until now, our frameworks performed well. Yet, political race impedance stays a progressing danger that will never completely be comprehended. So we keep on improving with every political race, he stated, giving subtleties of the endeavors being embraced by the California-settled organization during the decisions.

Taking note of that they assume liability at Facebook to ensure the trustworthiness of this political race truly, Zuckerberg said that in 2016, the organization started to confront new sorts of dangers and following quite a while of planning, they were prepared to protect against them.

We assembled complex frameworks to ensure against political decision obstruction that joined man-made brainpower, huge human audit and organizations with the insight network, law implementation and other tech stages, he said.

Facebook has brought down in excess of 100 organizations of troublemakers who are attempting to facilitate and meddle all around the world.

It set up an organization of autonomous reality checkers that covers in excess of 60 dialects and made political publicizing more straightforward on Facebook than anyplace else, including TV, radio and email. It additionally acquainted new approaches with battle citizen concealment and deception, he said.

All things considered, the pandemic made new difficulties regarding how to deal with deception about COVID-19 and casting a ballot via mail, how to plan individuals for the truth that outcomes would require some investment and how to deal with in the event that somebody rashly announced triumph or wouldn't acknowledge the outcome, Zuckerberg said.

Twitted failed to tame parody accounts, govt must frame guidelines: Experts

Parody accounts on Twitter were meant to post fun-laden tweets to delight the followers. Instead, they have become fake news factories, misleading the users on burning issues in India.
Twitter accounts that pose as another person, brand or organisation in a confusing or deceptive manner have seen a meteoric rise in India, tweeting misinformation to change the narrative of the day.
No one is spared in this misinformation war, be it politicians, mediapersons, celebrities and common Twitter users, who fall to the trap and retweet or file stories basis those parody/fake handles that have mushroomed on Twitter and the algorithms have miserably failed to track and flag/remove those.
In fact, India is such a big market for Twitter and it ought to have given far more attention to compliances under the Indian law, but it appears that there is a lot of gap between what the law wants Twitter to do versus what Twitter actually does.
Today, Twitter is infested with fake and parody accounts in India. Most of these accounts are being used for the purposes of targeting a particular person or for the purposes of forwarding or perpetuating a particular philosophy, political, religious or otherwise.

"Most of the fake accounts are targeting individuals, often hitting them below their belt so as to prejudicially impact the reputation, goodwill, standing or repute in society," Pavan Duggal, one of the nation's top cyber law experts and a seasoned Supreme Court lawyer, told IANS.

Facebook, Twitter, others to deny requests on Hong Kong user data

Social media platforms and messaging apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google and Twitter say they're going to deny enforcement requests for user data in Hong Kong while studying ramifications of a national security law enacted last week.
Facebook and its messaging app WhatsApp said in separate statements Monday that they might freeze the review of state requests for user data in Hong Kong , pending further assessment of the National Security Law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with international human rights experts.
The policy changes follow the rollout last week of laws prohibiting what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities, or as foreign intervention within the territory's internal affairs.
The legislation criminalizes some pro-democracy slogans just like the widely used Liberate Hong Kong , revolution of our time, which the Hong Kong government says has separatist connotations.
The fear is that the new law erodes the freedoms of the semi-autonomous city, which has operated under a 1 country, two systems" framework after Britain handed the colony to China in 1997.
That framework has allowed Hong Kong and its people freedoms not found in China , like unrestricted internet access.
Spokesman Mike Ravdonikas said Monday that Telegram understands the importance of protecting the proper to privacy of our Hong Kong users.
Telegram has been used broadly to spread pro-democracy messages and knowledge about the protests in Hong Kong .
Telegram has never shared any data with the Hong Kong authorities within the past and doesn't shall process any data requests associated with its Hong Kong users until a world consensus is reached in reference to the continued political changes within the city, he said.
Twitter also paused all data and knowledge requests from Hong Kong authorities after the law went into effect last week, the corporate said. it's studying the implications of the safety law.

Like many public interest organisations, civil society leaders and entities, and industry peers, we've grave concerns regarding both the developing process and therefore the full intention of this law, the corporate said during a statement. 

Twitter for iOS gets 'Voice Tweet' feature: How to add voice notes to tweet

Twitter has been trying a few new highlights, and the upgraded one to join the rundown is the voice notes include, which permits its clients to tweet voice messages. The component is as of now accessible to a constrained gathering of individuals on Twitter for iOS stage, and it will be accessible for everybody on iOS in the coming weeks.
"A great deal can be left implied or uninterpreted utilizing text, so we trust voice Tweeting will make a progressively human encounter for audience members and narrators the same," said Twitter in an authority blogpost.
"…we trust voice Tweeting enables you to share your points of view rapidly and effectively with your voice. We can hardly wait to perceive how individuals will utilize this to make their voices heard and add to the open discussion," the blogpost included.
How the voice tweet include functions:
Voice tweets are not quite the same as text tweets. To begin, open the Tweet arranger and tap the new symbol with frequencies. You will see your profile photograph with the record button at the base – tap this to record your voice.

Each voice tweet catches as long as 140 seconds of sound. Be that as it may, when you arrive at as far as possible for a tweet, another voice tweet begins naturally and makes a string. When done, tap the 'Done' button obvious on the upper right corner to end the account and return to the author screen to distribute voice tweets.

Twitter Fleets: What is it, how it works and who all shall get it

Twitter presented on June 9 a component named Fleets for Android and iOS stages. Roused by the Stories highlight on Instagram and Facebook, Fleets is a brisk method to communicate musings utilizing sight and sound or content. Musings shared on Fleets vanish naturally following 24 hours.
How about we see what Fleets offer, how it works and who all will get it:
Twitter Fleets: Story-ies behind it
Twitter is about individuals posting their perspectives, connecting with others by remarking on a post, 'loving' it or indicating support by retweeting a post. Twitter is open by plan, however a few clients may not feel good with that on the grounds that their tweets anyone can see and answer them.
To empower individuals to communicate their contemplations without the nervousness of how others would take it, Twitter presented Fleets on March 4 in Brazil. The Fleets highlight appears to be propelled by Stories include on Instagram and Facebook. It permits individuals to share musings as content, sight and sound and mixed media with content on it. In spite of the fact that the Fleets are noticeable to everybody, it vanishes following 24 hours and don't get retweets, preferences, or open answers - individuals can just respond to your Fleets with direct messages. In addition, rather than appearing in individuals' courses of events, Fleets are seen by tapping on your symbol.
How Twitter Fleets functions

On the off chance that you have posted Stories on Instagram and Facebook, it would be simple for you to know how the Fleets work. For the individuals who have not, the Twitter for Android and iOS stages presently show another strip on the top with your symbol, trailed by little round photograph symbols of individuals you follow. You can swipe from option to left to see who all have shared Fleets as of late.

Twitter adds new labels, warnings to combat Covid-related misinformation

In order to deal with misinformation and provide more transparency in content on the platform, Twitter introduced new labels and warning messages that will provide additional context and information on some tweets that contain disputed or misleading information related to Covid-19.
The three broad categories the company will look at are misleading information, disputed claims and unverified claims.
In March, the microblogging platform adopted a new set of guidelines to address content that goes “against guidance on Covid-19 from authoritative sources of global and local public health information”.
Twitter’s internal teams and trusted partners will work to identify content likely to result in offline harm. However, embedded tweets and tweets viewed by people not logged in to Twitter may appear without a warning or label.
“This process is ongoing and we’ll work to make sure these and other labels and warnings show up across Twitter,” said Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of Site integrity and Nick Pickles, director, Public Policy Strategy at Twitter wrote in a blog post.
Monday’s announcement also includes using the new labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm from a misleading tweet may be less severe, “but where people may still be confused or misled by the content. This will make it easier to find facts and make informed decisions about what people see on Twitter,” the officials said in the post.
“Earlier this year, we introduced a new label for Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media. Similar labels will now appear on Tweets containing potentially harmful, misleading information related to Covid-19. This will also apply to Tweets sent before today,” they said.
The labels will link to a Twitter curated page or external, trusted sources of information.

Additionally, Twitter may also apply warnings to certain tweets, depending on the possibility of harm and type of misleading information.

Twitter disables 'tweet via SMS' feature due to text message vulnerability

Twitter has disabled its ‘tweet via SMS’ feature in most countries due to security reasons. The feature has been with the micro blogging site since its inception. However, with the proliferation of affordable smartphones and cheaper internet services, it lost its utility. Moreover, there have been vulnerabilities associated with text messaging service for tweets.
"We want to continue to help keep your account safe. We have seen vulnerabilities with SMS, so we have turned off our Twitter via SMS service, except for a few countries," said the micro-blogging platform in a tweet.
There are not many people who use this feature which is with Twitter since the very beginning but there were some complaints from people who still used SMS to read tweets.
The tweet via SMS feature was launched with Twitter's original 140-character limit.
Everyone will still have access to important SMS messages needed to log in to and manage their accounts.
206 people are talking about this
In September last year, Twitter said that it was temporarily turning off the ability to Tweet via SMS, or text message, to protect people's accounts.

"We're taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication (we're working on improving this)," it added.

SC asks parties to reveal pending criminal cases against poll candidates

Current Affairs
The Supreme Court on Thursday guided every single ideological group to transfer on their site subtleties of pending criminal arguments against applicants challenging surveys, taking note of that there has been a disturbing increment in criminalisation of governmental issues.
The zenith court said ideological groups will likewise need to transfer purposes behind choosing applicants with pending criminal cases on their site.
The court passed arranges on a scorn supplication which raised the issue of criminalisation of governmental issues asserting that bearings given by the pinnacle court in its September 2018 decision identifying with exposure of criminal precursors by applicants are not being followed.
A seat headed by Justice F Nariman likewise coordinated that ideological groups will distribute these subtleties via web-based networking media stages like Facebook and Twitter and in one nearby vernacular and one national paper.
The top court said ideological groups should present a consistence report right now the Election Commission inside 72 hours of choosing applicants having pending criminal bodies of evidence against them.
It coordinated that the EC will carry it to the notification of the peak court in the event of disappointment of ideological groups to consent to its bearings.

While articulating the request, the seat said apparently there has been a disturbing increment in criminalisation of governmental issues in the last four general decisions...READ MORE

Twitter to label altered photos, videos, remove if it may cause harm

Current Affairs
Twitter will start to mark and at times expel doctored or controlled photographs, sound and recordings that are intended to delude individuals.
The organization said on Tuesday that the new guidelines restrict sharing engineered or controlled material that is probably going to cause hurt. Material that is controlled however isn't really hurtful may get an admonition mark. Under the new rules, the hindered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which she seemed to slur her words could get the mark in the event that somebody tweets it out after the principles go live March 5. In the event that it was demonstrated that it likewise causes hurt, Twitter could likewise evacuate it.
However, choosing what may cause damage could be hard to characterize, and some material will probably fall into a hazy area. "This will be a test and we will make mistakes en route - we welcome the persistence," Twitter said in a blog entry.
"In any case, we're focused on doing this right." Twitter said it considers dangers to the wellbeing of an individual or a gathering genuine damage, alongside danger of mass viciousness or far reaching common distress. Be that as it may, damage could likewise mean dangers to individuals' security or capacity to openly communicate, Twitter said. This could incorporate stalking, voter concealment and terrorizing sobriquets and material that intends to quiet somebody. Google, Facebook, Twitter and other innovation administrations are feeling the squeeze to forestall obstruction in the 2020 U.S. races after they were controlled in four years prior by Russia-associated on-screen characters.

On Monday, Google's YouTube explained its arrangement around political control, repeating that it bans political race related deepfake recordings...READ MORE

Twitter to test features to limit abuse, may allow users to filter replies

Current Affairs
Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it will test new features early this year that would allow users to control who can reply to their tweets, as it looks to limit abuse and harassment on the platform.
Social media firms are under pressure to address harassment on their sites, which often occurs in unsolicited replies targeting women and minorities, and Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has promised since 2018 to increase the "health" of public conversation.
"We want to help people feel safe participating in the conversation on Twitter by giving them more control over the conversations they start," the San Francisco-based company said in a tweet.
The company had launched a feature late last year allowing users to hide certain replies on their tweets as a part of its efforts to clean up abusive content and make the social media platform more user-friendly.
In a presentation at the annual CES tech conference, the company laid out plans, according to reports by several tech media, including The Verge and TechCrunch.

According to the presentation, users will be able to choose four different settings for replies: Global, which would allow anyone to respond, Group, which would allow replies from people a user followed or mentioned; Panel, or people mentioned in a tweet, and Statement, or no replies at all....Read More

Trump backs severe sanctions, says many options short of war for Iran

International News
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday there were many options short of war with Iran after US ally Saudi Arabia displayed remnants of drones and missiles it said were used in a crippling attack on its oil sites that was "unquestionably sponsored" by Tehran.
"There are many options. There's the ultimate option and there are options that are a lot less than that. And we'll see," Trump told reporters in Los Angeles. "I'm saying the ultimate option meaning go in -- war."
The president struck a cautious note as his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a visit to Saudi Arabia, described the attacks as "an act of war" on the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter.Trump said on Twitter that he had ordered the U.S. Treasury to "substantially increase sanctions" on Iran, which denies carrying out the attacks, and told reporters the unspecified, punitive economic measures would be unveiled within 48 hours.
Trump's tweet followed repeated U.S. assertions that the Islamic Republic was behind Saturday's attacks and came hours after Saudi Arabia said the strike was a "test of global will".Iran again denied involvement in the Sept. 14 raids, which hit the world's biggest crude oil processing facility and initially knocked out half of Saudi output. Saudi Arabia is the world's leading oil exporter.
Responsibility was claimed by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group, which on Wednesday gave more details of the raid, saying it was launched from three sites in Yemen.

 In a remark that may further strain a tense political atmosphere in the Gulf, the Houthis said they had listed dozens of sites in the United Arab Emirates, Riyadh's top Arab ally, as possible targets for attacks...Read More

FB, Google, Microsoft, Twitter meet US intel agencies on 2020 poll security

Current Affairs
US technology companies including Facebook Inc, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft Corp and Twitter Inc met with US intelligence agencies on Wednesday to discuss security strategies ahead of the November 2020 election.
The companies' security teams met representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park.
"The purpose was to build on previous discussions and further strengthen strategic collaboration regarding the security of the 2020 US state, federal, and presidential elections," Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, said in a statement.
"Specifically, attendees talked about how industry and government could improve how we share information and coordinate our response to better detect and deter threats."
Social media companies are under pressure to ramp up security after what US intelligence agencies have called an extensive Russian cyber-influence operation aimed at helping President Donald Trump get elected in 2016. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"This is a joint effort in response to a shared threat, and we are committed to doing our part," a Twitter spokeswoman told Reuters in a statement.
Microsoft and Google also confirmed their attendance at the meeting.

 "At Google, we've invested in robust systems to detect phishing and hacking attempts...Read More

ShareChat raises $100 million in Series D funding led by Twitter

Company News
ShareChat, a regional social media platform, on Friday announced that it had raised a new round of funding of $100 million in its Series-D funding, where Twitter and TrustBridge Partners are two new investors.
To date, ShareChat has raised $224 million. Existing investors participating in this round include Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital.
This new round of funding will help ShareChat strengthen the technology infrastructure for its platform as the company looks to scale its business. Additionally, ShareChat will acquire talent to help propel the exchange of ideas among its strategic partners. To accelerate the internet ecosystem in India, the company will also be introducing more features to make the experience seamless across devices.
“This is a very exciting time for us at ShareChat as we see our platform growing rapidly. With this new round of funding, we are positioned to take the next leap in our growth story. As we scale up, our focus remains to help the ShareChat community better express themselves in the comfort of their native language,” Ankush Sachdeva, CEO, ShareChat ​said.
Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director of Twitter India said that Twitter and ShareChat are aligned on the broader purpose of serving the public conversation, helping the world learn faster and solve common challenges. This investment will help ShareChat grow and provide the company’s management team access to Twitter’s executives as thought partners, he added.

“Lightspeed is excited to continue to support ShareChat in every financing round – Series A through the current Series D, and beyond...Read More

#ZomatoUninstalled, #BoycottUberEats trend after 'food is religion' tweet

International News

A day after Zomato snubbed a customer who refused an order from a non-Hindu rider, #ZomatoUninstalled trended on Twitter on Thursday, with many accusing the online food delivery platform of bias. #BoycottUberEats also caught on after UberEats backed its rival’s “Food has no religion” comment.
Even as the incident had social media divided, the Jabalpur police in Madhya Pradesh sought an undertaking from the Zomato customer that he would not spread religious hatred. The controversy began on Tuesday when a Zomato customer tweeted: “Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non-Hindu rider for my food they said they can't change rider and can't refund on cancellation. I said you can't force me to take a delivery. I don't want don't refund just cancel.”
In response, the official Twitter handle of Zomato tweeted, “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.”
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal tweeted: “We are proud of the idea of India — and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values.”
While several Twitter users came out in support of Goyal, others agreed with the customer and pulled out examples of complaints where Zomato did not take a similar stand. The tweet that began the entire issue was, however, deleted by Thursday morning.
Hashtags like #boycottzomato trended on Wednesday, #ZomatoUninstalled gathered steam on Thursday.

 "Bye bye Zomato, you lost one precious customer, many more to come… Don't support one side if you can't resolve the issue. #Zomato Uninstalled,” tweeted one user. Many uninstalled UberEats’ app as well, and tweeted #BoycottUberEats for supporting Zomato...Read More

Twitter suffers second global service disruption in little over one week

International News

Twitter users on Thursday found themselves unable to log onto the platform as the US social media giant experienced the second service outage in a little over one week.
Twitter has been undergoing some problems since 2:46 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and more users were alerted with a message saying "something is technically wrong" when they tried to log on, the Xinhua news agency reported.
"IS Twitter down or just mine," asked Twitter user mica@kianscloudy in a tweet, which followed with replies from many users who responded with the same problems.
The service interruption was confirmed on Twitter's status page, which said there was an "active incident" that affected the platform's normal operation.
It was the second time that Twitter reported widespread outages in more than one week after the firm experienced issues with DM delivery and notifications on July 3.

 Down Detector, which tracks service interruptions on a variety of sites across the world, posted an increasing number of outage reports since Thursday morning.

Facebook and Twitter are getting sucked into India-Pak information battle

Current Affairs

Pakistani social media campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads about 300 ultra-nationalist cyber warriors fighting an internet war with arch-foe India, in a battle that is increasingly sucking in global tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook.

Tayyab, 24, spends his days on Facebook and encrypted WhatsApp chatrooms organising members of his Pakistan Cyber Force group to promote anti-India content and make it go viral, including on Twitter where he has more than 50,000 followers.

That ranges from highlighting alleged Indian human rights abuses to lionizing insurgents battling Indian security forces in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region at the heart of historic tensions between Pakistan and India.

Tayyab’s job became harder on Monday when the Pakistan Cyber Force’s Facebook account was taken down, one of 103 Pakistani accounts the social media giant said it had deleted because of “inauthentic behaviour” and spamming. Some Indian nationalist accounts have also been suspended in recent weeks.

Portraying himself as an online combatant defending Pakistan from India’s attempts to destabilise his country, Tayyab plans to continue playing his role in the broader information war being fought between the nuclear-armed foes.

“We are countering the Indian narrative through social media, we are countering the enemies of Pakistan,” Tayyab told Reuters in the capital Islamabad.


 With a combined population of 1.5 billion, India and Pakistan are hot growth markets for Facebook and Twitter, say analysts...Read More

Govt warning: Twitter execs may get 7 years in jail if it doesn't comply

Economy & Policy:

Top Twitter executives could not only face financial penalties but also face upto seven years in jail if they fail to remove content and accounts that are 'objectionable and inflammatory," Times of India reported quoting an unnamed official from the ministry of information technology.

Twitter has been asked to comply with the provisions under the Indian IT Act or else it would face action under Section 69A of the IT Act which gives the government power to seek the blocking of content or accounts that carry information seen as detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of the country, or has potential to create public disorder.

The warning from the IT ministry comes just as the micro-blogging site faced the heat from a parliamentary standing committee over perceived biases in blocking accounts ahead of elections.
As India heads for national elections, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have been asked to not undermine or influence the political process. In fact earlier this week, Twitter went live with its 'Ads Transparency Centre' for India, that would allow people to view details of political advertisements in the country, including advertiser spends and impressions data.

A parliamentary panel last month asked micro-blogging site Twitter to engage more with the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of general elections and address issues on a "real-time" basis.
The Twitter officials were told that there should not be any "international interference" in the Lok Sabha polls.


 Twitter had last month announced that it would provide details including advertising spends and impressions data of tweets from political entities to users in India, as it sought to bring in greater transparency on its platform by tightening norms for political advertisements...Read More

India-Pak tensions: Vistara waives cancellation fee for Leh, 3 other cities

Companies News:

Vistara airlines stated that no cancellation fee would be charged if a ticket has been booked to or from Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar or Leh for travel up to March 31.

For those passengers who could not make it to the airport to fly "to or from" the aforementioned cities on Wednesday, the airline said it is waiving the no-show fees and providing full refund.

"For customers booked to or from Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar or Leh for travel up to March 31, 2019, we are offering free cancellation with full refund," Vistara said in a Twitter post on Wednesday night.
"For those who want to cancel their bookings to or from these cities for travel up to March 31, please email your request along with PNR details and phone contact...We will strive to respond to all such requests within 4 hours, between the hours of 7am and 11pm," the airline said.

Vistara said it would be entertaining cancellation with full-refund requests only. "We will not be accepting any date change requests for these flights within the period specified."

Due to rising tensions between India and Pakistan, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) earlier on Wednesday, saying flight operations at the airports in Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Pathankot, Amritsar, Shimla, Kangra, Kullu Manali and Pithoragarh would remain shut from February 27-May 27.


 IndiGo tweeted that it would take zero-cancellation fee for all Indian soldiers who are on leave and have been asked to resume their duties.