In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 22nd July 2018
MediaNama would like to thank its sponsors: E2E, for their support.
OpenSignal report: Airtel takes 4G download speed top spot away from Jio
Airtel had the fastest 4G download speeds, per an OpenSignal report. The report — State of Mobile Networks: India — noted that Jio held the highest score in every state for 4G availability, i.e., the ability to connect to latch onto a 4G network. Other telcos did not come close in that metric, since Jio is the only operator whose entire network is fully LTE-enabled without any legacy infrastructure. Read it here
Sacred Games row: Delhi HC asks petitioner to justify PIL; Kolkata complaint withdrawn
The Delhi High Court has asked the petitioner who had filed a plea against the Netflix series Sacred Games to justify that the petition stands as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The advocate who filed the case on an individual capacity, Nikhil Bhalla, is associated with the Congress party, and the court therefore asked that this petition’s validity as a public interest issue be justified. Read it here
On the TRAI’s recommendations on Privacy
The talk of the tech policy circles in Delhi these days is about the delays in the release of the Srikrishna Committee report on Privacy: Will they release a law, or will it just be recommendations? Have the recommendations been delayed because the committee is indecisive now about data localisation, given the reaction to the RBI’s seemingly “out of the blue” diktat regarding localisation of financial transaction data? Read it here
MeitY refuses to disclose Srikrishna Committee submissions, meeting minutes
The IT Ministry has refused to share copies of submissions sent to the Justice B.N. Srikrishna-led committee for data protection in response to an RTI application filed by Medianama. The Ministry has also refused to hand over minutes of the committee’s meetings. The ministry in its response said that the submissions were “confidential” and “not available for public dissemination” without the consent of the submitting entity. Read it here
HT Media’s net profit drops steeply by 86.2% in Q1FY19
HT Media reported a net profit of Rs 5.7 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 (Q1 FY19), steeply down with 86.2% from Rs 41.5 crore in the same quarter last year, and down 92.4% from Rs 75 crore in the previous quarter. Read it here
70 million people saw the FIFA World Cup on Sony Liv, peak 2mn simultaneously
In what is probably a record for a tournament that was played outside India, the FIFA World Cup got over 70 million viewers on Sony Liv, the Economic Times reports. Additionally, users on average spent 15-16 minutes on the stream. Read it here
EU slaps Google with $5 billion for anti-trust breaches; Google will appeal
The European Commission has slapped Google with a record-breaking fine of $5 billion for violating anti-trust laws. The European Commission says Google has abused its position in three major areas. Read it here
Bharti Airtel in talks with Warburg Pincus to raise up to $1.5 billion
Bharti Airtel is holding talks with US private equity firm Warburg Pincus to raise up to $ 1.5 billion by selling as much as 15% of Bharti Airtel International, its holding company for African operations, according to a report by The Economic Times. The two companies are discussing a sale of 10-15% stake for $1.25-1.5 billion, said the ET report quoting two people familiar with the deal. Read it here
WhatsApp is piloting forwarding restrictions in India; Not enough
We know it already, and we didn’t need WhatsApp to tell us that Indians send more forwards – messages, photos and videos – than people anywhere else in the world. With that in mind, and the Fake News and misinformation mess it has allowed to fester in India, WhatsApp is testing adding more friction to the process of forwarding messages, which it will be introducing in its beta build. Read it here
How the government has answered Fake News questions in the Parliament
In March, the government said in response to a parliamentary question that the IT Act was in place to ‘regulate misuse of social media’. The specific question, which Minister of State for MeitY KJ Alphons answered, asked if the government was coming up with any policy to ‘check circulation of fake news’ on social media. Read it here
