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Twitter has fixed a bug that caused an automatic suspension of accounts on tweeting the word Memphis. The social networking platform said that it had also restored accounts that were temporarily affected due to the bug.

A number of accounts that Tweeted the word Memphis were temporarily limited due to a bug. Its been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. Were sorry this happened, said Twitter Support.

According to The Independent, many discovered the bug after sharing a photo of Dutch football player Memphis Depay.

Responding to the bug, Olympique Lyonnais tweeted a picture of Depay with the caption can we talk about him yet?. A basketball team Memphis Grizzlies also called out Twitter with a tweet the m word.

Many Twitter users reported that their posts were almost instantly removed, and their accounts were restricted for sharing the word. Some users said they were locked out of their accounts for almost 12 hours for tweeting the word.

Later, many users changed their name to "Memphis" to make a point. Some also found a workaround to the ban by tweaking the spelling. For instance, some wrote 'Memphs' instead of 'Memphis'. Some reports suggest the verified handles were not affected by the bug.

That said, Twitters explanation does not really explain why its system automatically banned the account for using the word Memphis.

ALSO READ: Twitter now lets you disable replies to Fleets

The bug comes days after Twitter said it was working on a new feature that would allow automatically blocking and muting of abusive accounts. The feature will be available through a Safety Mode.

Once enabled, the social networking platform will automatically block accounts that appear to break the Twitter Rules, and mute accounts that might be using insults, name-calling, strong language, or hateful remarks. Twitter said it would automatically detect accounts that it deemed abusive or spammy and limit how such accounts would engage with their content.

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Twitter fixes bug that suspended accounts for tweeting the word Memphis - HT Tech

INTRODUCTION

The Central Government has notified the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 (New IT Rules), with effect from 25 February 2021, pursuant to Section 87 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act). The New IT Rules will supersede the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011 (2011 Rules).

The New IT Rules have been described by the Government as a harmonious, soft-touch oversight mechanism in relation to social media platform as well as digital media and OTT platforms etc. and are intended to empower the ordinary users of digital platforms and social media to command accountability in case of infringement of their rights and seek redressal for their grievances.

The New IT Rules regulate entities transmitting content through digital media as well as intermediaries and publishers who are operating in India or overseas (but target users in India). Interestingly, while the regulatory and compliance aspects (under Part II of the New IT Rules) in respect of social media intermediaries (such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) will be administered by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT), the compliance regime in relation to digital news media and OTT platforms (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+Hotstar), which is prescribed under Part III of the New IT Rules, will be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

This article encapsulates the top 5 salient features of the New IT Rules along with the key implications thereof for the social and digital media sector in India.

1. More Stringent Requirements for Significant Social Media Intermediaries

The New IT Rules seek to categorise social media intermediaries (basis the number of registered users) into significant social media intermediaries or other social media intermediaries. A social media intermediary having five million or more registered users is categorised as a significant social media intermediary and needs to comply with certain additional due diligence related requirements as discussed below.

The general compliance regime for all intermediaries includes:

The users are required to be informed about types of information that are objectionable and not to be shared, displayed, uploaded, etc. and an intermediary also required to inform users (at least once every year) about (a) any changes to its rules and regulations, privacy policy and/or user agreement; and (b) its right to terminate users access or remove any published content from its platform which does not comply with the intermediarys rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement.

The compliance framework for significant social media intermediaries is much heavier and extends beyond the requirements mentioned above to include additional conditions such as:

Pertinently, the New IT Rules also give discretion to the Government to require any other intermediary (i.e. even a relatively smaller social media platform) to comply with the foregoing additional compliances, if the services of such intermediary imposes a material risk to the sovereignty or integrity of India, security of the State, etc.

Any failure on part of an intermediary to comply with the provisions of the New IT Rules, may lead to such intermediary losing the safe harbour provisions available to it under the IT Act, in addition to being liable to punishment under the relevant law for the time being in force.

2. Identity of first originator of information a threat to end-to-end encryption

The obligation on the significant social media intermediaries (which primarily provide messaging services) to trace and confirm the identification of the first originator of information, if required by a court order or an order passed by a competent authority under Section 69 of the IT Act, has not received a warm reception by the industry.

Many social media platforms are contending that end-to-end encryption makes it impossible to track the originator of a message and that even the platform itself does not have decryption keys, and, therefore, does not have access to the messages itself. From a cost perspective, the concern remains that any change to these technologies that have been developed through rigorous cybersecurity testing over the years, will require additional investment. Social media platforms argue that such additional cost outlay will be counterproductive as the end result will defeat the principle of data minimalism and privacy which is the core inherent element of end-to-end encryption technology and provides people with a safe environment to have private conversations over the instant messaging services.

Another concern that has been raised by the industry is that in case the originator is located outside India, the first originator in India will have to be identified. In such a scenario, the intermediary will have to have access to the metadata of the entire chain of the conversation which in turn will require messaging applications to be re-engineered to capture metadata. The industry players argue that this will again entail additional costs, encroach upon user privacy, and fuel user paranoia.

3. Regulation of the content published on OTTs and digital news media platforms

The most significant development in the New IT Rules has been the introduction of a new framework for the regulation of content that is published on OTTs and digital news media platforms. The New IT Rules have prescribed a Code of Ethics (Code) which, among other things, lays down the general principles, and metrics and guidelines for the classification of content and needs to be complied with by publishers of online curated content (OCC), intermediaries which primarily enable the transmission of OCC, publishers of news and current affairs and intermediaries which primarily enable the transmission of news and current affairs. Interestingly, these guidelines are similar to the rules that had been issued by MIB in December 1991 for sanctioning of films for public exhibition.

Further, with a view to create a level playing field for all the players in the media sector including TV broadcasting and print media, the New IT Rules now require digital media platforms and online publishers of news and current affairs to also comply with the norms prescribed by the Press Council of India (under the Press Council Act, 1978) and the Programme Code under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995.

4. Content Censorship and Classification

OTT platforms are required to classify all content such as films, web-series or other shows based on age, themes, content, tone and impact, and target audience. The rating categories provided in the New IT Rules are U, U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+ and A, with requirement to have parental controls and age verification mechanisms where content is classified as U/A13+ or higher.

Further, the OTT platforms are required to consider before exhibiting content, the implications of such content on areas such as the sovereignty and integrity of India, Indias relations with foreign countries and maintenance of public order. They are also required to take into consideration Indias multi-cultural and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and discretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices, or views of any racial or religious group. With the ever changing and fluid moral compass of the society, it will be interesting to see how the OTT platforms will be able to steer around the diverse sensibilities, cultures and beliefs of the Indian content consumer and balance their demands for different genres of content. Another practical difficulty which the OTT platforms will face is around the classification/re-classification of the already published content on the platforms to ensure compliance with the New IT Rules. As regards to the content which has already been produced but is yet to be released, the new regime may result in additional editing costs depending on the content and the target audience that the platforms were eyeing.

5. Three-tier grievance redressal mechanism self-regulation under government oversight

The New IT Rules require OTT platforms and the digital news media to formulate a robust three-tier grievance redressal mechanism on the following lines:

Under this new tiered system, MIB not only has the power to refer grievances to the Committee constituted by it but it also has the authority to issue guidance and advisories to publishers. The Committee can also send recommendations to MIB for warning, censuring, admonishing or reprimanding an entity.

Key implications for the industry players

While the Indian governments intent to regulate social and digital media platforms has been known for a while, the timing of the New IT Rules, nevertheless, aligns well with (and works as a logical corollary to) the already mounting global pressure (spearheaded by top social and digital media markets such as US, the UK and Australia) on digital media and social networking giants to take more responsibility for the content that is published on their platforms.

The compliance heavy regime for significant social media intermediaries will definitely have a cost implication (given the requirement of setting up of a physical presence in India along with deployment of additional resources and employees) let alone other commercial and tax implications which are inherent in establishing a place of business in India.

At the same time, an active compliance of the New IT Rules will require the social media intermediaries to deploy significant resources to revamp their existing end-to-end encryption technologies, without compromising on user confidence and comfort. It would be interestingly to see how the changes to these technologies will play out and balance out (if at all) the users concerns around privacy.

Separately, while many players in the industry do concede to the fact that online content must adhere to some prescribed rules and ethics so as to remain unbiased and (given the ubiquitous outreach of the internet) some filtration of online content is also justified; however, in the same breath, concerns are also being raised that the Governments push for a soft-touch oversight over the social and digital media sector should not morph into overregulation (with time) and stifle the freedom of speech and expression that has become synonymous with this medium.

While what will become of the New IT Rules (particularly from an enforcement perspective) is something that remains to be seen, however, the recent observation by the Supreme Court in an ongoing litigation involving a political show on an OTT platform manifests that the New IT Rules lack teeth which in turn could trigger the Government to introduce more specific liability provisions for the breach of these rules by the industry players.

The content of this document do not necessarily reflect the views / position of Khaitan & Co but remain solely those of the author(s). For any further queries or follow up please contact Khaitan & Co at [emailprotected]

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Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code - A Soft-Touch Oversight Regime or the First Step towards Over-Regulation? - Lexology

#Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcame the Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, Cultivate Community, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic

This week, in honor of International Womens Day, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Anjie Vichayanonda, Founder of Leg Up Legal, whose mission is to disrupt and revitalize the legal industry pipeline by providing meaningful mentorship to everyone.

We covered a wide range of topics, from her latest co-authored book to dealing with COVID-19 one year later. Every time I connect with Vichayanonda, it is always meaningful as she shares both strategic and tactical advice for our audience to act upon.

Without further ado, here is a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation:

Renwei Chung (RC): You recently published a book titled #Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcame the Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, Cultivate Community, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic. Can you provide a brief overview for our ATL audience?

Anjie Vichayanonda (AV): Yes, I had the honor of being a co-author of #Networked alongside 19 amazing women lawyers. We all met on LinkedIn and joined a group DM with 30 other women at the beginning of the pandemic. Our group is diverse in age, ethnicity, and geography. I found myself chatting with all of these ladies in our group DM almost hourly at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

It was fascinating for me to hear the stories of how the pandemic was impacting our daily lives, our law practice, and our businesses. We found solace and support in each other and realized that we were building something really special so 20 of us got together and wrote #Networked, which is a collection of our stories about the early days of the pandemic.

RC: Did any of you know each other outside of LinkedIn?

AV: No, as far as I know, before joining our group DM, none of our members knew each other offline. Thats part of what made this whole experience so impactful for me because I realized that you can really build strong connections through LinkedIn. To get to know each of the women in our group more closely, I had one-on-one Zoom calls with many of them, interacted with them on group Zoom events, followed their posts and content, and participated in the group chat every day.

I now feel closer to many of the women in our group than I do to many of the colleagues and friends from professional circles offline. Ive laughed with them and cried with them. Weve celebrated birthdays and professional successes. Many of us have supported each other by collaborating on podcasts, events, and by referring new business to each other. Im just so surprised about the whole experience because Ive never been one to have a close-knit group of girl friends, and I found my sisterhood during a pandemic in the oddest of places LinkedIn.

RC: Several of my mentees have recently inquired about networking after law school. Do you have any tips?

AV: My first tip is dont wait until after law school! Especially during these times of social distancing, you should be growing your network and finding support right now. My advice is to start reaching out to attorneys for informational interviews. Identify attorneys who you want to connect with through LinkedIn, professional organizations, alumni connections, or bar associations. Invite them to do a 30-minute informational interview on Zoom (and use a scheduling tool like Calendly or Appoint.ly to make scheduling easy for them).

During the informational interview, build rapport with the attorney by asking them questions about their journey instead of just asking about their work responsibilities. Ask them questions like what led you to pursue law school? What was your law school experience like? How did you find jobs during law school and how did you pick which practice areas to pursue? These questions will help you get to know the attorneys motivations and understand their interests. Ask the attorney for advice and use that advice as an opportunity to follow-up afterwards. Ask them what organizations you can join that are focused in their practice area, or ask them if there are upcoming CLEs or events you can attend to learn more about their practice area.

Then, when you take that advice, write back to the attorney and let them know the result. Keep a spreadsheet or a Notion file of your contacts to keep track of when you last spoke to each contact. Use calendar reminders to help you remember to follow-up with your contacts. For follow-ups, you can send updates of your milestones and successes, ask for more advice, offer to connect your contacts to other people, share relevant articles or events, or praise your contact for a recent accomplishment.

RC: What recommendations do you have for law students and young attorneys for dealing with this pandemic era?

AV: Be more intentional about maintaining relationships. Most humans crave connectivity and belonging so it is important for your well-being to stay connected to others. Invite a classmate or colleague to do a standing Zoom lunch every other week. Find events that you can attend and actively participate during the event.

Its really easy to attend virtual events and shut your camera off and try to multitask during the event, but youre not going to get to know anyone that way and youre not going to take away much value. So, when you attend a virtual event, make sure you at least introduce yourself in the chat box or jump on camera to ask questions and engage with people at the event if possible.

RC: What have you learned about yourself and others over the past year or so?

AV: Ive learned that one of my superpowers is connecting people and teaching them how to build relationships. Everyone talks about networking as if it is a natural skill, but theres a lot of awkwardness in building professional relationships. And almost everyone feels intimidated by networking at first, especially if you dont have a lot of professional experience.

Ive learned that many people have anxiety about reaching out to other professionals for mentorship or guidance, and even if they build up the courage to reach out once, it is hard for them to find ways to keep up the connection.

RC: I enjoyed our recent Zoom Meetup, what prompted you to start this series?

AV: I started our weekly Zoom Meetups to build a community of prelaw students, current law students, and lawyers who could support each other during these times of social distancing, and give our community information and resources that would help them excel in their careers. Every week, we invite guest speakers, including lawyers, law school admissions professionals, prelaw advisors, career coaches, and more, to share some wisdom with our community.

We always reserve time at the end of each meetup for an open Q&A so that participants can interact with the speaker and each other. To create a dedicated networking opportunity, we also host a biweekly virtual happy hour on Zoom for all prelaw students, current law students, and lawyers. During the happy hours, we split everyone into one-on-one breakout rooms so they can have higher quality interactions, and then we come back together as a group to share information that we learned in the breakout rooms.

RC: In our conversation, many of the same themes have popped up: finding your tribe, getting connected, and being intentional about your career. What tools do you specifically leverage to accomplish these goals?

AV: Luckily, we have so many tools now to help us maintain our relationships and stay connected. I started creating content on social media and hosting virtual events last year to help law students and lawyers stay connected and have networking opportunities.

My content started creating value for my connections so they shared that content across LinkedIn and my network grew very quickly. When you share content on social media, it helps to keep you top of mind among your professional connections. If you dont have the time to reach out to each of your contacts regularly, social media can be a great tool to reach a lot of your network at once. Specifically, I post on LinkedIn at least three to five times a week, and use a post scheduling tool so that I dont have to login every day to post. I also post about our events on Instagram and Facebook.

I use LinkedIn and Zoom to connect with new people and invite them to meet with me so I can learn more about them and find ways we can collaborate. LinkedIn will help you expand your network, and video meetings will help you deepen your connection.

My co-authors from #Networked all use a group DM on LinkedIn to stay connected and chat everyday. I speak to a lot of lawyers who simply dont think LinkedIn is worth the effort or that they dont have time to use social media professionally, but its those same lawyers who tell me that they feel isolated and detached from their community and colleagues. Whether we like it or not, our personal and professional lives have started to move more online during the COVID-19 pandemic and people have started building real communities of support online. So, if youre feeling disengaged, you may want to consider amping up your social media game.

RC: Thank you for your time today, is there anything else youd like to share with the ATL audience?

AV: If you are interested in getting a raw and candid perspective of how other lawyers, specifically women lawyers, have juggled their work and personal lives during the pandemic and found ways to connect with others, check out #Networked. Its available on Amazon here:

And if youd like to connect with me and the other ladies of #Networked, come find me on LinkedIn.

On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I would like to thank Anjie Vichayanonda for taking the time to share her story with our audience. We look forward to following her successes and wish her continued achievements in her career.

Continued here:
COVID-19: One Year Later How To Network And Thrive During A Crisis, Featuring Anjie Vichayanonda - Above the Law

One challenge of Social Media is staying updated with the latest trends and new Social Media platforms. At the start of 2021, I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to an audio-chat-based Social Media platform called Clubhouse. Currently, Clubhouse is an invite-only platform and is available to Apple users only right now.

Having spent some time exploring Clubhouse here, are my initial thoughts:

1. With limited people on the application it, is a fantastic opportunity to build both Community and Brand.

2. The Networking opportunities are endless. You can connect with some of the worlds most prominent Business and Industry leaders.

3. Everyone starts with 0 followers. So, if you spend enough time on the app, you have the opportunity to build a great community and following.

4. Its undervalued attention. Anytime a new Social Media platform has the consumers attention you, should be where the eyeballs are to grow and scale your Brand or Business.

With this understanding, I went away and developed a strategy on how I could use Clubhouse to help with my overall Promotions Strategy around the Teawithmikeshow.

How can Clubhouse help the Teawithmikeshow?

1. On the Networking side, I can connect with people who might want to be a guest on the Teawithmikeshow.

2. My strategy on the platform to help me stand out from the crowd is to be bold. When people host a room that interests me, I raise my hand to speak to add value to the conversation. Adding value and being authentic is a great way to increase your followers.

3. I believe in balancing my time between large rooms and hosting my own. For Teawithmike, youll see me moderating rooms around Storytelling, Conversation, Community, and Tea Drinking.

To be continued.

#blog #brand #mike podcasting #mike talkshow #mike tea #storytelling #tea #teawithmike #behindthescenes

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My thoughts on Instagram Streaming - Todayville.com

Thirty years ago, social media (as we think of it today) didn't exist. Now, it is a dominant and inescapable part of the culture, a tool used by people of all ages from all over the world. A tool used to connect with family and friends, to find community, to find love. Or maybe just to find a strange little eight-second video created by someone you've never met who lives thousands of miles away that manages to make you laugh until your stomach hurts.

The rise of social media has, of course, created companies that are hugely valuable and powerful, like Facebook and Twitter and Tencent. These fresh-faced industry giants made their early backers hugely wealthy. And this week, it was as clear as ever that investors are still eagerly searching for the next social media colossus.

A cohort of companies putting their own unique twist on social media has been making headlines, which is one of 10 things you need to know from the past week:

Yet the company's user base continues to grow, and its role in the GameStop saga seems to have alerted investors to the potential for community organizing and community action that exists in Reddit's wide array of user-moderated forums. The company announced $250 million in new funding on Monday at a $6 billion valuation, doubling the figure it attained just two years ago, according to PitchBook data.

Reddit's approach to social media is often anonymous and text-based. It is a very different story at Bumble, the operator of a popular dating app that requires women to make the first move. But Bumble also had a banner week: The company raised nearly $2.2 billion in its IPO, then saw its shares climb more than 60% on their first day of trading, taking the company's market cap above $13 billion.

Bumble is different from most social media companies in that the ultimate goal for users is to stop using the platform entirelyif an app is an effective matchmaker, it won't have a lot of repeat customers. Bumble is also unusual among its peers in that it was majority-owned by a private equity firm, Blackstone, rather than being backed by venture capitalists. But in the early going, at least, it's a recipe Wall Street is eating up.

By far the buzziest social media startup in Silicon Valley lately has been Clubhouse, which is emerging as an online version of the traditional European salon. Investors, founders, influencers and other invitees use the platform to convene audio-only chat rooms on a wide array of topics. But a lack of moderation of those topics has already sparked its fair share of controversy. Late last month, the company raised new funding at a reported $1 billion valuation.

Clubhouse has become so buzzy that existing social media giants are taking note. Reports emerged this week that Facebook is planning to launch a similar audio chat product. And Twitter is reportedly expanding tests of its Twitter Spaces feature, another audio chat product designed to compete with Clubhouse.

The idea of voice-based social networking isn't new. Ham radio has been around for more than 100 years. Discord and Twitch have their similarities. But there seems to be a growing consensus among the tech elite that it's an area poised for serious growth in the years to come.

Reddit and Bumble are all about connecting with other everyday people. Clubhouse is a bit more focused on fame. Famous people are the entire business model at Cameo, another kind of social media service, where users can find a menu of thousands of celebrities who are willing to record a personalized video in exchange for a fee. Some people use it to send a birthday greeting from a favorite reality star. Others use it to break up with their spouses.

When it first brought in seed funding in 2018, Cameo seemed like a curiosity. Now investors are valuing the company at $1 billion, Bloomberg reported, more than tripling its 2019 valuation. With its reliance on star power, Cameo represents an interesting intersection of social media and the influencer economy.

Did somebody say influencer? That brings us to TikTok, the last stop on our tour of the week in social media. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US government has indicated in court that it would not force through TikTok's sale of its US operations to Oracle and Walmart, a convoluted transaction that had been arranged last year at the behest of the Trump administration.

There was always a sense that TikTok's best bet to avoid the divestiture was simply to wait it out, and that patience has been rewarded. The Biden administration is reportedly conducting a broader review of US policy toward China in trade, tech and other areas, and it's unclear what the regime change will mean for the relationship between the two superpowers. But in this case, a different leader in the White House made all the difference.

Reddit, Bumble, Clubhouse, Cameo and TikTok all take different approaches to using technology to bring people closer together. And in these social media-fueled times, there might be room enough for all of them to flourish.

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10 big things: Social media's next generation - PitchBook News & Analysis