Technology, Media and Telecom

When was the last time you were baited by an advertisement into believing something was priced attractively only to discover that there was a catch to the purchase?, or you thought something was free or discounted, except that it really was not, and that was available only under limited circumstances? Misleading ads can be troublesome, sometimes even dangerous (in the case of children, for example), for consumers and regulators alike. ......

Urban India has witnessed replacement of newspapers and magazines with e-newspapers and e-magazines. Mobile apps and websites are the new source of news on digital platforms. Major news and broadcast companies have ventured into the digital media and news sector to benefit from this new age medium. ......

In recent years, the digital payments space has grabbed eyeballs across India, with the upsurge in the use of debit cards, credit cards and UPI payments. The increase in the use of digital payments can be largely attributed to the increase in access to the internet, e-commerce websites, mobile applications and the pandemic that forced several individuals to shop online, even for basic necessities. ......

The popularity of online gaming platforms has soared high in recent times with enthusiasts from all age groups. The rising trend of demand for such games has made it critical to speculate its promotion through advertisements. ......

Defamation is the act of intentionally injuring one’s character by false and malicious words in such a manner that it lowers or injures the reputation of that individual in the eyes of society or the community to which they belong. Traditionally defamation is of two varietals: libel and slander. ......

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team ("CERT-In") is the national agency for incident response for cyber security and has been established under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"). Its functions include the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents, providing and implementing emergency measures for handling any cyber security incidents, coordinating cyber incident response activities, and issuing guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and white papers with information relating to security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents. ......

Under Indian law, defamation is both a criminal (punishable with imprisonment) as well as civil offence (punishable through the award of damages). Defamation as a civil offence is punishable under the law of torts, whereas, the criminal law on defamation is codified under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC"). ......

In an earlier article we wrote about how gambling in India faces a peculiar predicament. The blanket ban in India of any activity that constitutes ‘gambling’ has existed since the British-Era, and has not undergone significant modification since that century. ......

The Union Budget 2022-23 ("Budget") was presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2022, and undoubtedly has the thread of a digital, and an increasingly more digitised, India running through several of its proposals, which have been created with an emphasis on inclusion and the building a robust economy by leveraging digitisation in several spheres. ... ...