The apex court stayed the Centre’s notification of setting up a fact-checking unit. Details on that and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in this letter:
■ Fish crypto withdrawals under scanner
■ Tata Sons confirms TCS stake sale
■ Neuralink brain chip patient plays chess
SC remains Center’s fact-checking unit citing impact on freedom of expression
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the notification for setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to identify fake news about the Union government.
The reason: A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the validity of the rule involves important constitutional questions and affects the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression.
Bringing the news: The Center on March 20 notified the fact-checking unit to monitor online content about the government for accuracy. The notification came days after the Bombay High Court declined a petition to restrain the Center from notifying the unit. The petition was filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and the Editors Guild of India.
Read also | Media hails SC order on fact-checking unit, says government cannot be sole arbiter of its own affairs
What does the rule say? According to the new rules, if the fact-checking unit finds or is informed about any posts that are “false”, “false” or contain “misleading” facts about the business of the government, it would flag it to the social media intermediaries. .
Those intermediaries would then have to remove such content if they wanted to retain their “safe harbor” (legal immunity from third-party content).
Read also | Top cop to head Karnataka surveillance unit
CCI refuses to restrain Google from paying service fee on Play Store
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday rejected an “interim relief” application by Indian internet companies against the new billing policy of Google Play Store.
CCI’s stance: In order, the CCI said that the informant “did not meet the necessary criteria for grant of interim relief as proposed by the Supreme Court”.
However, the CCI clarified that last week’s order on inquiry into Google Play Store’s billing policy is still valid. The director general of CCI, the regulator added, “will investigate without being in any way swayed by the observations here”.
Developer requirements: The complainants – Anupam Mittal’s People Interactive, Mebigo Labs, the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) and the Indian Digital Media Industry Foundation (IDMIF) – sought CCI to restrain Google from imposing any fee on app developers until the regulator reaches a final final ruling on whether the big tech company’s updated pay policy violates antitrust rules.
App companies have claimed that the Google Play Store’s payment policies are anti-competitive.
Catch up quickly: The regulator’s decision comes amid complaints that Google’s updated payment policies in the Google Play Store allegedly violate competition law.
Google had earlier removed some apps from the Play Store due to payment issues and then reinstalled them. The complainants claimed that the payment policies affect multiple stakeholders, including app developers, payment processors and users alike.
Read also | ETtech Explainer: Why are Indian startups fighting Google Billing?
Crypto exchanges are scrutinizing fraudulent coin withdrawals
Indian cryptocurrency exchanges block withdrawal of coins at the slightest suspicion about the nature of transactions.
Bringing the news: All withdrawal requests are scanned to question the source of money and details of counterparties controlling the external wallets where the cryptos would be moved.
Withdrawing and transferring cryptocurrencies from an exchange’s wallet to a private wallet can be an easy way to launder money or commit fraud on investors lured by ponzi schemes after bull.
Compliance in focus: “Exchanges have to save their skin. If there is fraud or questionable money transfers, the Enforcement Directorate will come after them and freeze their bank accounts. So exchanges add new layers that make withdrawals more difficult. Stopping suspicious withdrawals is essentially mitigating that risk,” an official said.
Verification process: If coins are sent to an already known and previously verified wallet, the process is relatively simpler. But if the transfer is to an unknown wallet, additional steps are followed. Once all the details are shared, the withdrawal request is reviewed for verification.
Bitcoin high: Bitcoin is up 6.2% at $66,848 in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
According to Goldman Sachs head of digital assets, Mathew McDermott, the recent surge in cryptocurrency prices has been driven by retail investors, but institutions are starting to join in.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high of $73,794 last week and has gained 50% so far this year, pulling other crypto prices along with it.
Tata Sons confirms to sell 2.34 crore shares of TCS in block deal
Tata Sons on Thursday confirmed sale of nearly Rs 2.34 crore of India’s largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in a block deal worth Rs 9,000 crore. With this deal, its stake in the IT services major has now dropped from 72.38% to 71.74%.
Why the sale? Although the conglomerate did not comment on the reason behind this move, there could be a number of reasons for this.
- Tata Sons can use the deal for its new ventures like semiconductors
- The cash can be used to reduce some debt of Tata Sons. Its FY23 balance sheet shows borrowings of nearly Rs 20,270 crore.
- Debt reduction could also help the company avoid an IPO. Why does it avoid listing? Read here.
Stock effect: This deal may be small in percentage equity terms, but it’s big in size. The impact of this big deal was negative on the stock as it fell 4% on Tuesday and is now down about 7% from Monday’s high. It closed 0.09% lower on Thursday at Rs 3,974.05 on the BSE.
Source: BSE
Expert take: “I think it is a routine order of profit or reduction of investment and they would use that capital for foreign purposes, maybe backing capital in other stocks or because their philanthropic causes are doing very well,” market veteran Sanjiv Bhasin told ET.
Neuralink’s first brain chip patient plays chess with his mind
Noland Arbaugh, paralyzed below the shoulder after a diving accident eight years ago, is now in the news for playing online chess, using his mind to operate the computer mouse. This is due to the Neuralink chip implanted in the 29-year-old’s brain.
What’s the news? Elon Musk’s brain chip startup Neuralink on Wednesday went live on X with its first human patient playing a computer chess game, controlling it with his mind alone.
The chip was surgically implanted in Arbaugh in January as the company tests its brain implant technology for “people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts.”
Reposting the video, Musk said, “Livestream from @Neuralink demonstrating ‘Telepation’ – controlling a computer and playing video games just by thinking.”
From the horse’s mouth: Talking about the computer games, Arbaugh said that he has completely given up playing. “You all (Neuralink) gave me the ability to do this again and (I) played for 8 hours straight.”
In the livestream, the patient also said that the surgery to implant the chip was “super easy.” “I was literally released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairment,” Arbaugh said, admitting that the new technology is not without its challenges.
Read also | Neuralink put its first chip in a human brain—What could possibly go wrong?
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai.