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  The Centre on Thursday categorically said in the Rajya Sabha that action will be taken against Social Media platforms if fake news and violence is spread through it. "There is freedom of speech but Article 19A says that this is subject to reasonable restrictions," said Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. "We respect social media a lot, it has empowered common people. Social media has a big role in the Digital India programme. However, if social media are misused to spread fake news and violence, then action will be taken on the misuse of social media in India whether Twitter or else," said Prasad. He said all the social media platforms will have to adhere to the constitution of India. The Indian constitution allows criticism of the government and the Prime Minister, but spreading fake news will not be allowed, he said. Prasad said, "We have flagged certain issues to Twitter and social media has to take into ...

South Africa has suspended plans to inoculate its front-line health care workers with the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine after a small clinical trial suggested that it isn't effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country. South Africa received its first 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week and was expected to begin giving jabs to health care workers in mid-February. The disappointing early results indicate that an inoculation drive using the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be useful. Preliminary data from a small study suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine offers only “minimal protection against mild-moderate disease" caused by the variant in South Africa. The variant appears more infectious and is driving a deadly resurgence of the disease in the country, currently accounting for more than 90 percent of the COVID-19 cases, health minister Zweli Mkhize said Sunday night. “The AstraZeneca vaccine appeared effective against t...

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that videos in the new YouTube Shorts player are receiving 3.5 billion daily views, and the company will bring it to more countries in 2021. Short is a video-making app like TikTok where people can express themselves in 15 seconds or less. During the Q4 2020 earnings call with analysts late on Tuesday, Pichai said that at YouTube, the company is building products to help creators benefit from two important trends -- live video and short-form video. "More than 0.5 million channels live-streamed on YouTube for the first time in 2020, from artists performing in their living rooms to churches moving their services online," Pichai informed. "And videos in our new shorts player are receiving 3.5 billion daily views. We are looking forward to expanding shorts to more countries this year," he added. YouTube ads brought in $6.89 billion in Q4, a 46 percent jump from the same quarter last year. Philipp Schindler, Chief Busin...

F inance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday used her trademark 'Bahi-Khata', a ledger wrapped in a red-colored cloth, to carry Budget documents as she arrived in Parliament House to present her third straight Budget. Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Finance Minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget Briefcase for the traditional Bahi-Khata to carry Union Budget Papers. She used the same last year and again on Monday. Her budget for fiscal year beginning April 2021 (FY 2021-22) is Modi government's 9th straight budget since 2014 (including one interim budget presented ahead of general elections in 2019). She was appointed Finance Minister when Modi swept to power again in the 2019 election, and presented her maiden budget on July 5, 2019. She used a red-cloth folder enclosed with a string and emblazoned with the national emblem to carry the Budget documents. Earlier, Finance Ministers in different governments including her predecessor...