INTRODUCTION

"Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?" – this very famous question was posed by Greek philosopher Socrates, to his followers. In essence, he impressed on his followers to ask themselves whether what they speak is the 'truth', whether it is 'considerate' of the person spoken to or about, or whether their words were 'necessary' for any good purpose. If the answer to any of these questions was no, he preached that it was wiser to remain silent. A similar notion is also widely recognized in the Buddhist tradition, which urges one to think whether what they say is "spoken in truth" or "spoken beneficially". While time and experience have served as testament of this long-forgotten way of thinking, the 'truth' is something that is still a fundamental ideal in our society, as seen from our notions of justice and equality.

Whether it is the courts rejecting the stay of a docu-series or the introduction of a fact-checking feature on Meta or a minister dispelling untrue rumours in a state, in some of our key updates carried in this Recap, what struck a chord with us was the emphasis on truth and clarity being fundamental to all these developments.

On that note, we present to you, The Recap, capturing the media, entertainment, and gaming updates for the month of February 2024, with a special focus on developments in courts and in the industry. We hope you enjoy reading this edition of The Recap as much as we enjoyed presenting it for you!

MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT UPDATES

Bombay High Court rejects stay on Netflix's docu-series 'The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth'

The Central Bureau of Investigation ("CBI") unsuccessfully sought a stay on the release of the true-crime series 'The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth' on the over-the-top ("OTT") streaming platform 'Netflix' by filing a plea before the Bombay High Court ("Bombay HC"). The series delves into the alleged murder of Sheena Bohra, the daughter of Indrani Mukerjea, the prime suspect.

The CBI sought the stay on the ground that the series would (a) impact the ongoing investigation into the alleged murder that CBI was conducting, considering that the series featured interviews of the accused herself along with lawyers who have been presenting her defence; and (b) impact public perception and impact the rights of the parties. The judges of the Bombay HC presiding over this case themselves viewed the series, and refused to pass a stay order stating that the contents of the series were already in public domain and added that impact on public perception is not grounds for staying the release of the docuseries. The matter was subsequently dismissed.

You can read the order of the Bombay HC here.

Potential protection to content creators:

At the ET Now Global Business Summit, the Minister of State ("MoS") for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, indicated that the Central Government has been considering coming up with a framework to prevent exploitation of content creators by big platforms. Mr. Chandrashekhar alleged that such online powerful commercial platforms have started to distort the fundamental characteristic of openness of the internet. It was further added that the Central Government acknowledged that big platforms were not allowing content creators to be confident that their content was being monetised fairly, and that these concerns may also be addressed in the proposed Digital India Act.

You can read more on the this as reported by the Press Trust of India and the Economic Times here and here.

Meta's attempts at introducing fact-checking on WhatsApp:

Meta announced its collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance ("MCA") to launch a dedicated factchecking helpline on WhatsApp. This is aimed at combating media generated information using artificial intelligence which may deceive the general public and help connect the public with verifiable credible information. The helpline will be available for the public to use in March 2024.

The efforts seem to be aimed at curbing the spread of misinformation through deepfakes. Content may be flagged by sending the same to the WhatsApp chatbot which will offer multilingual support in English and three regional languages, that is, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The MCA will also set up a central 'deepfake analysis unit' to manage all inbound messages that are received on the WhatsApp helpline and will work closely with member fact-checking organisation, along with industry partners and digital labs to assess and verify the content, to debunk false claims and misinformation effectively.

You can read Meta's statement here.

'Slanderous content': Social media platforms v. the Central Government:

During question hour in the Rajya Sabha, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, stated that the Central Government is bringing in laws and taking other steps to make social media platforms more accountable for any 'slanderous content' posted on their social media platforms. It was further indicated that the Central Government intends on amending intermediary rules, which would be aimed at conferring 'significant responsibility' on social media platforms, such that they can detect deep fakes, and misinformation and take appropriate action against deepfakes and misinformation. The minister added that one of the main aims behind this was to ensure that the internet is safe, trusted and is delivering on its intended goals.

You can read more on the development as reported by the Economic Times and the New Indian Express here and here.

You can read more on this development in this press release by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry available here.

Kerela High Court comes to the aid of WhatsApp:

Notices issued by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate ("AJM") which summoned WhatsApp India's representative to provide details of the originator of an obscene video that was circulating on the platform, were stayed by a single judge of the Kerala High Court ("Kerala HC"). This matter involved an investigation that had been undertaken by the Kerala Cyber Police in relation to certain obscene video of a woman that was shared on the WhatsApp platform.

To view the full article, click here.

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