The Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Indian central government on Friday, seeking a reply to WhatsApp’s challenge against the new Information Technology Rules which were created by the government in February 2021. Tech companies have challenged the constitutionality of Rule 4(2) and related provisions requiring social media intermediaries to identify the first originator [...]
Amnesty International on Thursday published a report detailing the Bangladesh government’s crackdown on freedom of expression online by use of the country’s controversial Digital Security Act (DSA). The DSA was introduced in October 2018 and contains some wide-ranging provisions that enable the authorities to trample on the guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. Under [...]
The legislation and judiciary committee (“the committee”) of South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday approved a bill banning app store operators such as Apple and Google from charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases. The bill is an amendment of the Telecommunications Business Act and seeks to prevent app-store operators from unfairly using their market [...]
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s top market regulator, on Tuesday issued draft regulations for banning unfair competition on the internet and restricting the use of user data. The regulations have been drafted under the Law Against Unfair Competition, the Electronic Commerce Law, and the Administrative Punishments law. Business operators have been prohibited [...]
The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the central government’s counsel to take instructions for the government’s stand on a petition alleging large-scale data breaches on four e-commerce platforms. The petition was filed by Yarlagadda Kiran Chandra, General Secretary of the Free Software Movement of India (FSMI), a national coalition of sixteen regional and sectoral free [...]
The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed two provisions of India’s Information Technology Rules (“the Rules” or “Rules”) intended to regulate publishers of digital content such as social media intermediaries, OTT (Over-the-top) platforms, and online news and current affairs websites. The provisions in question, Rules 9(1) and (3), were issued by the central government in [...]
Apple announced Thursday a new policy for child-safety measures on its devices, leading several digital rights organisations such as the European Digital Rights network (EDRi) and Electronic Frontier Foundation to raise concerns over the privacy and security of the company’s large global customer base. The new policy scans messages sent or received by a minor’s [...]
The Tagansky District Court of Moscow on Thursday issued a fine of 3 million rubles against Google for violating Russia’s new data protection laws that mandate that personal data of Russian users is stored on servers in Russia. The law is known as the Federal Law On Activities of Foreign Persons in the Information and [...]
South African’s patent office, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, issued a patent that lists an artificial intelligence (AI) as the inventor on Wednesday. The patent is the first in the world to list AI as the inventor. The AI, known as DABUS (device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience), was developed by Stephen [...]
The Supreme People’s Court of China issued regulations Wednesday for use of facial recognition technology by private businesses. The guidelines require private businesses to receive consent from customers before collecting and processing their facial information. Under the new regulations, individuals have the right to reject the use of facial recognition technology for identity verification. They [...]
