India Observers

  Social media, a tool for connection and learning, poses risks for teenagers, including cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content. These negative experiences can impact mental health. To keep teens safe, parents should understand and monitor their  social media  usage without invading privacy. Regular conversations about online experiences create a safe space for sharing. Sharing personal social media habits sets a good example and encourages responsible online behavior. Emphasizing the importance of not oversharing personal or sensitive content is crucial. Encouraging breaks from social media promotes a balance between the digital and real world, benefiting mental health. Effective monitoring involves respecting privacy while ensuring safety. Set time limits for social media use, discuss the content they view openly, and be available to guide them through negative experiences. Parents play a pivotal role in guiding teens through social media, using understandi...

  A US federal court decision will subject major tech companies — Meta (formerly Facebook), TikTok’s ByteDance, Google’s Alphabet, and Snapchat’s Snap — to a lawsuit alleging their social media platforms negatively impact children’s mental health. The court, led by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, rejected the companies’ attempt to dismiss the lawsuits, allowing the legal challenge to proceed. School districts across the United States assert that platforms like  Facebook , Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat cause physical and emotional harm to children. Last month, forty-two US states took legal action against Meta, emphasizing the significant impact on the psychological and social realities of young Americans. The ruling consolidates over 140 actions against these tech giants. Judge Gonzalez Rogers clarified that the First Amendment and Section 230 do not shield the companies from all liabilities in this case. She suggested addressing platform defects, like insufficient pa...

  Instagram’s Chief, Adam Mosseri, has revealed some of the secrets behind the platform’s algorithm in a recent blog post. The post aims to provide better transparency and introduces new features based on creator feedback. It clarifies that   Instagram   utilizes multiple algorithms, classifiers, and processes for different parts of the app. When it comes to the Feed, Instagram takes into account users’ activity, post information, and interaction history to personalize the user experience. Factors like time spent on a post, comments, likes, shares, and profile taps are closely monitored. The more user actions and their importance, the higher the post will appear in the Feed. In the case of Stories, ranking is determined by users’ frequency of viewing and engagement with an account’s stories, as well as the closeness of their relationship with the author. Predictions are made based on user actions such as tapping, replying, or moving on to the next story. For Reels, user a...

  Instagram , a popular photo-sharing platform owned by Meta, is reportedly developing a new text-based app to compete with Twitter. Referred to as “Instagram’s new text-based app for conversations,” the app is expected to be released in late June. It will have a decentralized structure, similar to Mastodon and Jack Dorsey’s BlueSky project, enabling users from different apps to connect and interact. The app will allow users to log in with their existing Instagram credentials, carrying over their profile information, followers, and settings. It will feature a centralized feed, supporting text updates, videos, and images. The forthcoming text-based app from Instagram offers an alternative to users who are dissatisfied with the recent developments on Twitter, particularly with  Elon Musk ’s involvement. It aims to provide a personalized interface across various platforms, aligning with its compatibility with Mastodon and other social media platforms. The app is currently undergo...

 MeitY issued an advisory & asked all the major social media platforms to remove the deep fake images & videos within 24 hours after getting a user complaint. According to reports, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has instructed Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and other social media platforms to take “reasonable and practicable measures” to block or remove access to “deep fake imagery” in accordance with the IT Rules, 2021. According to a warning from MeitY , these sites must take down such images within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. A person’s identity, including the face and voice, are perfectly replaced with someone else’s in deep fakes, which are forged or fake videos made using deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence. In accordance with Rule 3(2)(b) of the IT Regulations , the MeitY guidance further stated that this content might constitute electronic impersonation, including electronically modified photos of...