A new media command room?

IN Media Watch Briefs | 30/05/2018

The I and B ministry under the new minister may have dropped the idea of regulating online media but will now monitor it. Bloomberg reports that the ministry has posted a tender online calling for a company to provide analytical software and professionals to "power a real time New Media Command Room." What will it do? Monitor Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Internet forums and even email in order to analyze sentiment, identify "fake news," disseminate information on behalf of the government and inject news and social media posts with a "positive slant for India." Wow.

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Amazon resisting voluntary censorship

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Let the games begin

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.