In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 28th June 2020
MediaNama would like to thank its sponsors: E2E, for their support.
Enforcing Net Neutrality in India: what to know before TRAI’s open house discussion
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will hold an open house discussion on traffic management practices and a committee to enforce Net Neutrality regulations on June 24. Read it here
The National Health Stack is shaping up: doctor registry in the works, test environments to go live on June 30
More APIs and plans for the National Health Stack have been made public after Bangalore-based private think tank iSpirt initially demoed the health data consent manager on May 23. Over webinars held on May 30, June 6, and June 13, iSpirt revealed further plans including that of building registries, including a doctor registry. Read it here
Exclusive: Vodafone Idea is entering India’s drone ecosystem, as partner of a consortium that includes Zomato as well
Vodafone Idea is set to enter India’s drone ecosystem by partnering with Zomato in the upcoming “beyond visual line of sight” (BVLOS) drone experiments being organised by India’s civil aviation regulator, a company source confirmed to MediaNama. Read it here
Netflix starts restoring video bitrate quality to pre-pandemic levels in India
91 days. That’s how long Netflix kept video bitrates suppressed in India after the Cellular Operators Association of India and the government’s telecom secretary asked it to do so. Read it here
German top court orders Facebook to stop harvesting user data
Germany’s top court, on Tuesday, ruled that Facebook abused its market position by illegally harvesting user data from multiple sources in the country, directing the company to comply to a similar decision which was made by the country’s antitrust watchdog last year. Read it here
French top court strikes down proposed law against online hate speech, calls it ‘unconstitutional’
The highest French constitutional authority struck down most of the country’s online hate speech law on June 18, calling it “unconstitutional” as it would have impinged on citizen’s freedom of expression, did not give platforms enough time to get a judicial warrant for content removal or ascertain whether the content was truly violative, and made platforms responsible for the adjudication of content instead of a judicial authority so that they could avoid heavy penalties. Read it here
TRAI should take note of unreasonable traffic management by telcos during the pandemic
Telecom operators have not been reasonable when managing traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially important as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is holding a Net Neutrality consultation process right now about reasonable traffic management. Read it here
Google tweaks data retention policy for search & location history, YouTube data
Google has changed its data retention policy for location history and search activity (both web and app), and will delete such data within 18 months by default. Location history is off by default, but should a user turn it on, this data will be deleted within 18 months by Google. Read it here
Exclusive: In a first, Netflix censors Hollywood film in India, cuts Kashmir from Mission Impossible: Fallout
Netflix has censored a Hollywood film in India, removing mentions and maps of Kashmir from Mission Impossible: Fallout. This is a first for the platform in India. While this is the version of the film that was released in theatres in India, it’s noteworthy that Netflix took an unusual step of releasing this censored version online, on its platform, as well. Read it here
Big Tech decry Republican bill seeking to break encryption
In response to the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data (LAED) Act proposed by three Republican senators, Big Tech companies have registered their opposition through their Reform Government Surveillance coalition. Read it here
