Moneycontrol
- Jul 5

Digital India Act and the challenge of tackling online harms, especially emerging ones

In November last year, global multinational corporations Eli Lily and Lockheed Martin lost billions of dollars when fake handles managed to get “verified” and posted false news announcements. This was the result of a hastily introduced verification feature by the Elon Musk-led Twitter, where anyone ready to pay US$8 could get the much-coveted blue check mark.

While Twitter withdrew the feature and suspended the fake handles, the damage was done. Closer home, in 2013, fake videos from Pakistan were uploaded on YouTube to incite riots in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. While Indian police officials scrambled to block them, hundreds had been killed, injured, or rendered homeless as the violence spread.