-The Times of India As many as 37 people have been arrested in connection with Rumour mongering during Assam conflict that led to exodus of people from the northeast from various cities, the government told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Of these, 24 persons were arrested by Karnataka police in connection with 17 cases filed in the state on the issue. The rest were arrested by Pune police which has registered cases against...

-The Hindu A key breakthrough emerging from a critical multi-stakeholder meeting held here on Tuesday on Internet censorship and legitimate state restrictions during crisis situations was that the government should itself use the Internet and social media to counter hate speech with comfort speech. Hate speech on social media has been blamed for triggering riots in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Mumbai two weeks ago. The participants, who included DoT Secretary R. Chandrashekhar,...

-The Hindu In an unprecedented move, the government, through the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, has agreed to initiate dialogue on Internet censorship with mega Internet companies, social media giants such as Google and Facebook, members of civil society, technical community, media, ISPs and legal experts. The triggers for the discussion, which will be held on Wednesday, are the riots in Assam, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Times of India The Union government has stepped up its efforts to stop what it perceives an online campaign of misinformation and Rumour-mongering in the wake of Assam riots and has blocked several Twitter accounts, including two belonging to journalists, considered sympathetic to far Right in India. The blocked accounts include those maintained by Kanchan Gupta, who until a few months ago was with the Pioneer newspaper, and Shiv Aroor, a...

-The Hindustan Times Under the cover of endorsing a proposal for the National Food Security Bill framed by an independent group of development economists, the government is all set to empty the Bill of any substance. Provisions relating to the Public Distribution System (PDS) will be reduced to a pointless reshuffling of existing foodgrain allocations to state governments, that too in favour of the richer states. And other entitlements, relating for...