THE
GOOD WORD
May 24, 2021 - Week 23
Volume 7S-2 |
Pages 1
2
Government warns WhatsApp and
Twitter
to fall in line
The new IT Rules 2021
aimed to make large
social media
companies, with over
50 lac users, more
responsible for the
content they host,
came into effect
Wednesday, after a 3
month period from
February 25 was given
to companies to
comply. While most
had chosen to ignore
the Rules, Google and
Facebook have now
signaled they will
comply. Twitter and
WhatsApp have chosen
to defy.
The grounds for
defiance seem to run
counter to the
government’s sovereign
right to impose rules
and its reasonable right
to private information
for national security.
The rules call upon the
companies to be able to
trace the originator of
inflammatory messages
and support
investigation when a
legal request is sent,
similar to terms that
the telephone industry
complies with. Attacks
on national security or
the territorial integrity
of India will be banned.
Objectionable content
flagged by the
authorities will have to
be taken down in 36
hours, that with
morphed images or
nudity in 24 hours. A
local grievance officer
will acknowledge a
grievance in 24 hours
and dispose it in 15
days. A soft touch
regulatory framework
that envisages three
tiers, first self-
regulation by the
entity, then by the
company appointed
self-regulation body
and last the central
government is sought.
Tuesday, WhatsApp
filed a case against
the government in the
Delhi HC seeking to
annul the Rules as they
violate user privacy.
Evidently it did so at the
fag end of the 3 months
window. Its claim that
message originators can’t
be traced without
breaking encryption needs
scrutiny. Meta data could
perhaps be an alternative.
Ironically WhatsApp is in
the midst of trying to
dilute end user privacy
itself by sharing invasive
meta data of Indian users
with Facebook companies,
something that it does not
do for European users and
the government has
opposed it.
Twitter wrote its case on
similar lines to the media
touting threat to freedom
of speech. Twitter’s
alacrity to tag tweets of
CEOs Dorsey, Pichai and Zuckerberg-Wburg.org
May 26,2021 Delhi
Bharat First
3
BJP handles as
‘motivated media’ at
the behest of the
Congress, without outing
its due diligence, and its
reluctance to comply to
reasonable requests, eg
showing parts of Ladakh
as Indian territory
instead of China, from
the government, are
glaring. In a strong
rebuttal the government
has bluntly asked Twitter
to stop beating about the
bush and comply with
Indian law.
WhatsApp has softened
its stance since. The
government has granted
an additional 15 days to
companies to comply.
More at OpIndia-1-2-3-4,
TimesNow.
BJP states manage
Covid-19 better,
report fewer fatalities
India’s battle with the
second Covid-19 wave
took a turn for the better
with daily new cases
plummeting since early
May. With the national
recovery at above 90%
now, health which is
primarily a state subject,
shows BJP run states
weathered the crisis
better than others. The
top 6 non-BJP ruled
states reported nearly
57% of the 3 lac Covid-19
fatalities to date but hold
30% of the country’s
May 25, 2021
population. Whereas
the 18 BJP states and
UTs reported only 31%
of the total deaths.
UP, the most populous
state with 17% of the
nation’s people
reported a mere 6%
The IMA which is
quoted trashing
Ayurveda on
Wikipedia as
quackery, has taken
serious umbrage to
Baba Ramdev’s
remark “Lakho logo ki
maut allopathy ki
dawai khane se hui
hai “ and some
WhatsApp messages
he read.
It has threatened a
Rs 1,000 crore
defamation suit and
pressed the
government to arrest
Ramdev for sedition.
Interestingly, the IMA
chief Dr. Jayalal, was
caught saying he
wanted to use
hospitals to convert
Hindus to
Christianity, earlier.
More at OpIndia and
Zee News
IPS officer Subodh
Kumar Jaiswal,
Maharashtra cadre
(1985), was appointed
director CBI for a period
of 2 years by a 3
member panel headed
by prime minister Modi.
Widely perceived to be
an honest officer,
Mr
Jaiswal served earlier as
DG CISF, CP Mumbai
and DGP Maharashtra.
He has also worked with
the state ATS, state IB
and RAW.
It is being perceived by
some as a jolt for the
MVA as he was involved
in the probe into
corruption in
Maharashtra Police
transfers and will now
probe former state
home minister
Deshmukh
More at Zee News and
Swarajya
Subodh Kumar
Jaiswal,
Maharashtra
cadre, made
CBI director
May 25,2021 Delhi
The Sri Lankan
parliament passed
the Port City Bill to
create a financial and
service SEZ over 269
hectares of land
reclaimed from the
ocean. Like the
earlier Hambantota
port which was
leased to China for 99
years and more, this
port project also
raises territorial
integrity and
sovereignty concerns
for a debt burdened
country partnering
again with China.
Lanka has assured
India that the port
would not harm
Indian interests, but
the Rajyapaksha
regime is seen to
have moved much
closer to China.
More at Daily News,
The Diplomat,
EquityPandit
Sri Lanka
Passes Port
City Bill
May 22, Ceylon
Last week, Calcutta
HC ordered 4 TMC
leaders whom CBI
had detained to
house arrest and
referred the CBI
matter to a 5 judge
bench.
Tuesday, CBI
approached SC to
challenge the order.
The SC disapproved
of the CM’s 6 hour
sit-in at the CBI office
and the state law
minister’s mobbing
the lower court with
thousands of TMC
workers. It observed
that if the CBI felt the
CM was a repeat
offender then there
was ample provision
in the Constitution to
act against her and
the CBI was free to
do so. It also asked
why all leaders stung
were not arrested?
The CBI withdrew the
SLP. The 5 judge HC
bench granted TMC
leaders interim bail.
At IndiaTVNews.Com
SC: CBI Free
to act against
Bengal CM
May 25,2021 Delhi
Visit IndiaWiki.org
IMA fumes at
Ramdev’s
remarks
May 25,2021 Delhi
Wuhan IV Lab
President Joe Biden
ordered intelligence
agencies to probe the
origin of the Covid-19
virus over the next 90
days.
In early 2020 two
groups of virologists
who published
opinions in the Lancet
and Nature Medicine,
helped lend credence
to the idea that the
virus was a
consequence of
natural evolution
rather than a
laboratory creation.
The media had
echoed their
opinions.
Since then it has was
discovered that the.
US orders Covid-19 origin probe
May 25,2021 Delhi
US had funded research
at Wuhan Institute of
Virology, via
intermediaries. The
Wuhan laboratory was
exploring gain of
function dynamics to
make the coronavirus
more infectious to
humans.
The opinions extended
by of both sets of
virologists were based
on bad science. More
incriminating was the
discovery that the
Lancet letter had been
organized and drafted
by Peter Daszak whose
organization funded
coronavirus research
at Wuhan and this
conflict of interest was
deceitfully declared as
‘no competing interest’
in it.
In February 2021, a
WHO commission that
visited the Wuhan lab
to look for evidence
found no traces of
Covid-19 in the
environment. Both
the SARS1 and MERS
viruses had left a
copious signature.
China refused to give
raw data on early
Covid-19 cases. The US
believes that a number
of researches in the
Wuhan lab fell ill in
autumn 2019.
Virus leaks from the
laboratory are not
unheard of. The recent
SAR1 virus had leaked
no less than six times.
Dr Faucci, who as
director NIAID could
legally grant gain of
function research aid,
now backs the
investigation too.
China has retorted by
saying that the US
must be probed first.
More at Nicholas
Wade, Zee News,
Swarajya, WION
of the total Covid-19
fatalities indicating
better management at
the state level by CM
Yogi Adityanath.
More OrissaPost.Com,
Wikipedia
