BC INDIA
Saved by @troclodyte

It's done: The IT Rules, 2021, are officially in play. We cannot stress this enough - this fundamentally changes the Indian internet. Please RT this thread on the Rules and how they bring government control over digital media like never before.
https://t.co/S7K9wnIkvI
1/n

 IT Rules affect social media, OTT, and news platforms. The latter 2 have been brought under the Rules for the first time. The Rules make platforms legally liable for not complying with government regulation, hence making user experience fall in line with the same.
2/n
Social media platforms with 50 lakh+ users will now be regulated as Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) with different obligations than Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs). Government discretion in compliance can lead to discrimination which disempowers small SMIs.
3/n
SMIs are now more answerable to law enforcement, with lesser breathing space around compliance deadlines.

Content takedown after receiving orders: 36hrs
Providing info to law enforcement: 72hrs
Requests to remove sexual content: 24hrs
Redressal by grievance officers: 15 days
4/n
The data retention period for SMIs has been doubled to 6 months for investigative purposes. Data will be preserved even if accounts are deleted. We are challenging this in the Supreme Court because such data retention in the absence of a data protection law is dangerous.
5/n
SSMIs must allow voluntary verification which can be a slippery slope towards mandatory verification and destroy user anonymity.

Further, web services will now notify you at least once a year not to do anything “illegal” - get ready for lots of spam in your inbox.
6/n
SSMIs must enable tracing originators of info in case of serious offences. See this graphic on why this IS an end-to-end encryption issue despite not being presented as such.

They must also deploy tech to identify sexual violence content, which leads to function creep.
7/n
Moving on to news media and OTT. Such platforms being regulated under the Rules amounts to the executive amending parliamentary legislation and is NOT permissible under the Constitution.

There is excessive delegation of powers - e.g. the government's “oversight committee”.
8/n
The Rules are applicable to all ‘news and current affairs content‘ regardless of the size of publication. Due to vague language, the Rules arguably could also seek to regulate all internet users who produce news, analysis, and socio-political commentary on a small scale.
9/n
News and OTT will adhere to a Code of Ethics via a 3-tier regulation mechanism. But the provisions of the Rules are too onerous for self-regulation to effectively happen. Platforms will be forced to self-censor keeping in mind overbroad restrictions.
10/n
MI&B will have emergency powers to block OTT and news content without any hearing. Tier 2 and 3 bodies have wide-ranging punitive powers.

The Rules state a loss of immunity with consequences including criminal prosecution in case of non-compliance for all intermediaries.
11/n
We are appealing to you to engage with this issue because the Rules will change the internet as we know it. We invite you to let us know your thoughts, views and any corrections.

Please support us so that we can continue standing up for your rights!
https://t.co/HYJIJBakov
12/n

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Supreme Court considers the suo moto case "IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS".

Sr Advs Siddharth Luthra and R Basant have submitted a draft rules on criminal practice.

The draft rules on criminal practice were submitted by the amicus curiae in March

Luthra : On March 5, 2020, a report on draft criminal rules was submitted after a colloquium with High Courts.

Luthra : After the draft rules have been circulated, we have only received responses of High Courts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Allahabad and Delhi. As many as 20 High Courts have chosen not to respond.

CJI : We are thinking we will give High Courts to appear within 2 weeks. They may give suggestions to the draft rules or may accept the rules and give a statement regarding willingness to implement the rules in HC.
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Press Conference of farmer leaders begins.

Farmer leaders on 26th January’s tractor march.
Tomorrow Supreme Court will take some decision.
We will consider the decision.
We have lost more than 121 farmers during protests.

People from Haryana are collecting soil and ghee from Villages.

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We won’t disturb Republic day parade on Rajpath.
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Ever heard of Gollala Mamidada village in Andhra?
Affectionately called "Konaseema Ayodhya", this town has a famous Lord Rama temple. Set in the midst of lush greenery, the towering double Gopurams are a sight for the ages.

A thread.


The delta area of the Godavari river is called the Konaseema. This island is created as the Godavari splits into its distributaries the Vruddha Godavari, Vasishta Godavari, Gautami and Nilarevu, just below the city of Rajahmundry. Gollala Mamidada is located here


Located around 45 km from Rajamundry (and 20 kms from Kakinada), this little village is famous for the Sri Kodanda Rama Swami Temple. Kodandam is the bow of Lord Rama, and he is worshipped in AP/TG mostly as Kodanda Rama.


This isnt an ancient temple like the others around here, but relatively new.
The construction started in 1889 by two local brothers Dwarampudi Subbi Reddy and Rami Reddy donated land and built a small shrine to Lord Rama. A larger temple was constructed in 1939


The most stunning feature of this temple are the towering double Gopurams. Rising vertically to the heavens, they lord over the neighbouring hinterland, and are said to be visible for over ten kilometres.
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Amrita Bhinder
Amrita Bhinder
@amritabhinder
#FarmReforms
#FarmBills

Who Is Protesting and Why?

Reforms have proved controversial. In Sept, BBC wondered whether they were a “death warrant” for farmers.

Some worry whether reforms might lead to the end of wholesale markets and guaranteed

Currently, the government offers a minimum support price that acts as a safety net for farmers. Even though the government has promised to retain such a price, farmers fear its withdrawal over time.

There is an added fear that big private players will offer good money to farmers in the beginning, kill off their competition and then pay little for agricultural produce.

Farmers might go from the local monopsonies of APMCs to the national oligopoly of Amazon-like behemoths.

It is important to remember that the government offers price support only for the staple crops of the Green Revolution.

Other crops do not qualify, nor do fruits and vegetables.

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming number of protesters are farmers from India’s northwest, the region that has benefited most from the old system. In particular, they belong to Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the birthplace of the Green Revolution.
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What is the Gujarat Model of ‘development’? Thread.

1. Gujarat spends less than 2% of its income on education (the norm is 5-6%) with the result that 45% workers in Gujarat are illiterate or studied up to the fifth standard with the quality of education very poor. (The Wire)

2. Public expenditure on health is 0.8% of the state income, well below the norm of 4-6%. Gujarat is decelerating very fast in almost all health indicators.

3. Forty-five percent children in the state are undernourished and the decline of maternal mortality rate has decelerated.

4. Close to 93-94% workers are in informal and traditional sectors with low incomes and low social security.

One of the reasons it attracts businesses is because of the low wage rates, which are comparable to that of Uttar Pradesh.

5. The Gujarat government's cumulative public debt has shot up to an astronomical ₹2,40,651 crore in 2018-19 and estimated to rise to ₹2,66,990 crore in the current financial year, which is ₹62,000 crore more than the total budget of ₹2,04,815 crore.

6. During the Vibrant Gujarat investors’ summits held between 2003 and 2011, MoUs were signed pledging investment totalling ₹40 lakh crore. However, only 8 per cent of the promised investment, amounting to just ₹3 lakh crore actually came.
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Muhiyudin Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jilani (RA) was one of the greatest Islamic Saint, Scholar, and Jurist. The honorific Muhiyudin denotes his status with many Sufis as a "reviver of religion". Jilani refers to his place of birth. He also carried the epithet Baghdadi.

[1]

Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani was born on the eve of the 2nd of Ramadan 470 AH. His birth was a great blessing for the Ummah. It was the arrival of the Sultan al-Awliya (King of the Awliya) of that era, which had been foretold for centuries before his birth.

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When Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jillani was asked by someone what brought him to his high spiritual level, he said, The truthfulness which I promised to my mother. He related the following story:
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Latest update from @TheBernician

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2/19

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3/19

As well as three counts of fraud by false representation and seven counts of fraud by non-disclosure, under sections 2 and 3 of the Fraud Act 2006, we can now also prove that the entire worldwide scamdemic originated on these shores.

4/19

In fact, we can show that, without the dishonest statements and non-disclosures of the four defendants we are initially proceeding against, COVID-1984 would not have transpired.

5/19

Furthermore, the 1st defendant, Matt Hancock, cannot rely upon the defence of Parliamentary Privilege, on the ground that none of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution is capable of preventing parliamentarians from carrying out their lawful business in Parliament.
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I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

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The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


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Thumba poo is a tiny white flower which grows in all areas. These flowers are used for treatment for sinus. Small children who have polyps in Nose are told to crush tumbha leaves and apply in nose part.
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Mahadeva. Thumba flowers were not taken for Shiva Pooja. Saddened to this Thumba prayed sincerely and Mahadeva appeared before her.
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@SriramKannan77


She said that her feet should be on his head. Shiva accepted her prayers. It is because of this Thumba flower is placed in the head of Shiva Linga.
Shambo Mahadeva
Om Namah Sivaye
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Can we control the output of neural generation systems?
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Check out the blog post for our NAACL paper:

https://t.co/UAAUxSeA0L

#AI #NLProc #DeepLearning #ConversationalAI @facebookai

This post got a little delayed since the paper's publication, but the intervening time has given me an opportunity to reflect.

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