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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]

See the rest here:
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

See the rest here:
My thoughts on Instagram Streaming - Todayville.com

This morning Techstars Music is announcing 11 new companies that have joined its ranks, along with a partnership with Atlanta media company/record label Quality Control.

While its easy to mentally bunch everything Techstars does together under the singular Techstars name, its actually made up of 40+ interconnected accelerator programs each with its own focus and portfolio. The majority of these are focused on a specific region programs like Techstars Boulder, Boston or LA. Others focus on a specific vertical or industry like sports, space, or, in this case, music.

So what all does that music focus cover? Its not just music creation tools, or apps for artists. As Techstars Music Managing Director Bob Moczydlowsky put it in a Q&A last year, we dont invest in music companies we invest in companies solving problems for music.

Their past portfolio includes Endel, which generates personalized soundscapes meant to help you focus or fall asleep faster, and Blink Identity, a company looking to replace the paper/digital concert ticket with facial recognition machines at the venues entrance.

555 Comic: Develops virtual characters and uses them to tell stories through social media (like the tweet above). Imagine one artist having multiple personas, with each genre they dabble in represented by a different character, each with an evolving backstory. (Fun trivia: The number five said aloud in Japanese sounds like Go; the Japanese companys name is a play on Go Go Go!)

BlackOakTV: A subscription, on-demand video service focusing on content made by black creators. Currently costs $4.99 a month with apps available on most major platforms.

Creative Futures Collective: A networking/mentoring program aiming to unearth the next generation of creative industry leaders from disenfranchised backgrounds and connect them with jobs and paid internships.

Fave: A social platform meant to help an artists superfans connect with each other and allow them to compete to earn rewards from the artist.

HappsNow: A fully white-labeled ticketing platform meant to give artists/venues more control of the experience.

Holotch: Capture volumetric 3D video with off-the-shelf technology and stream it live. Imagine an artist capturing a performance live, and being able to watch them perform in your living room through augmented reality holograms.

Music Tech Works: A super simplified catalog and workflow for figuring out who owns the rights to a song and acquiring a license to use it.

Image Credits: Rares

Rares: A platform for investing in shares of particularly notable sneakers think game-worn shoes, the hardest to find or those that were never mass produced.

Remetrik: A software platform that aims to bring all of the (often labyrinthian) accounting involved with music royalties into one place in a simple and transparent way.

Volta Audio LTD: A platform for artists to build immersive mixed reality live experiences by, as the company puts it, converting your music into an interactive world. Artist Imogen Heap has been experimenting with the tool during performances over the last few months; weve embedded a bit of a recent stream above.

Westcott Multimedia: An automated advertising platform that looks for events related to a music catalog (like, say, an artists birthday, or a song being played in the background of a viral video) and builds marketing campaigns around them.

Along with this latest class, Techstars Music is also announcing that its partnering with Quality Control, the media house behind Quality Control Music best known as the label behind Migos, Lil Yachty and Lil Baby. Quality Control joins Techstars Music as a member company (sort of like their equivalent to an LP, offering investment, helping to vet companies and mentoring them once theyre in); existing members include Amazon Music, AVEX, Bill Silva Entertainment, Concord, Peloton, Entertainment One, Right Hand Music Group, Royalty Exchange, Sony and Warner Music Group.

Moczydlowsky tells me that Techstars Music alumni companies have raised over $105 million since the first class in 2017 and that the group above has already raised over $3 million ahead of its demo day in May.

Follow this link:
Techstars Music announces its 2021 class and a partnership with Quality Control - TechCrunch

This is... interesting.

After adding the capacity for users to limit who can reply to their tweets last August, Twitter is now extending the same to promoted tweets, so that brands can limit who is able to reply to their ads.

As you can see here, now, within the Twitter ads creation flow, you'll have the option to choose who can replay to your promoted tweet via a new dropdown menu. As with Twitter's regular conversation controls, advertisers will be able to leave it as the default, which will mean that anyone can reply, or they'll be able to select People you follow or Only people you mention, restricting who can respond.

Why might you want to limit who can respond to your promoted tweet?

The main impetus for conversation controls in regular tweets is to stop trolls from commenting, or to limit the conversation for, say, an interview or more intimate discussion. Those same reasons could theoretically apply to promoted tweets - you could avoid potential critical replies by limiting who can respond, or you could effectively promote an interview stemming from your initial promoted tweet by mentioning the interviewee and limiting who can respond.

That could be a good way to add more context to a promotion - while there will also be various other ways in which brands will be able to prompt interaction and engagement by limiting who can respond to their promotions.

Maybe you could offer a discount to specified Twitter handles mentioned in the tweet, or you could make a special offer to anyone who's replies to the tweet - but in order to reply, they'll need to follow your handle (and you can then follow them back).

The option opens up a range of potential creative ideas, and it'll be interesting to see how brands look to utilize this capacity in their promoted tweets.

Definitely, the capability to limit replies has proven popular for regular users - Twitter says that since launch, 11 million people have applied conversation settings to 70 million conversations.

It could well present some new opportunities. Time to get thinking.

You can read more about Twitter's audience controls for promoted tweets here.

Originally posted here:
Twitter Will Now Enable Advertisers to Control Who Can Reply to Their Promoted Tweets - Social Media Today