New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) The European Union on Monday informed Meta (formerly Facebook) of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In the European Commission’s preliminary view, “this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them with a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks”.

DMA was introduced by the EU’s commission to give back to the users the power to decide how their data is used and ensure innovative companies can compete on equal footing with tech giants on data access.

In response to regulatory changes in the EU, Meta introduced in November 2023 a binary ‘pay or consent’ offer whereby EU users of Facebook and Instagram have to choose between — ‘the subscription for a monthly fee to an ads-free version of these social networks’ or ‘the free-of-charge access to a version of these social networks with personalised ads’.

“The commission takes the preliminary view that Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2),” the commission said in a statement.

Under Article 5(2) of the DMA, gatekeepers must seek users’ consent for combining their personal data between designated core platform services and other services, and if a user refuses such consent, they should have access to a less personalised but equivalent alternative.

“Our preliminary view is that Meta’s advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act. And we want to empower citizens to be able to take control over their own data and choose a less personalised ads experience,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive VP in charge of competition policy.

In case of non-compliance, the commission mentioned that it can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of the gatekeeper’s total worldwide turnover. Such fines can go up to 20 per cent in case of repeated infringement.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) The government-run Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on Monday said that it recorded 374,000 orders in a single day during the T20 World Cup final.

“This showcases the Open Network’s ability to handle high-volume transactions during significant events. Additionally, the F&B category saw exceptional growth, recording 61,000 orders,” the ONDC said in a statement.

These figures demonstrate the increasing adoption of the ONDC Network approach and its role in transforming India’s e-commerce landscape.

By providing a level playing field for businesses of all sizes, the Network continues to enhance the digital shopping experience for consumers nationwide, it stated.

In May, ONDC recorded an all-time high of 8.9 million transactions across retail and ride-hailing segments.

In the retail segment, the ONDC hit a new peak of 5 million orders in May, up from 3.59 million in April. The network also saw a single-day record of 200,000 retail transactions during the month.

The grocery and food delivery categories each crossed the 1 million order mark for the first time, while home and kitchen had 630,000 orders, fashion had 330,000 orders, and other retail sub-categories added up to 2 million orders, according to the network.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Digital India symbolises an empowered country which boosts ‘Ease of Living’ and transparency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.

The Prime Minister lauded the successful completion of nine years of the ‘Digital India initiative’, which was launched on July 1, 2015.

Sharing a thread on X by MyGovIndia, the Prime Minister wrote: “A Digital India is an empowered India, boosting ‘Ease of Living’ and transparency. This thread gives a glimpse of the strides made in a decade thanks to the effective usage of technology.”

MyGovIndia said in a post that from revolutionising digital payments to becoming the fastest-growing digital economy, India’s journey in the past nine years has been nothing short of extraordinary.

“The ‘Digital India’ initiative, spearheaded by the PM Modi government, has transformed the nation’s digital landscape.

“India’s trajectory exemplifies that Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is a fundamental driver of social transformation and progress,” MyGovIndia posted.

The country has become a leading global fintech ecosystem thanks to robust digital public infrastructure (DPI) models like unified payments interface (UPI).

Several countries are ready to embrace the ‘India Stack’ solutions to empower the masses, PM Modi told IANS in May.

The Prime Minister said that when he kicked off the ‘Digital India’ movement, opposition parties made allegations that this was being done to serve the needs of the service providers.

“They could not understand how big this area is and the 21st century is a technology-driven century. Moreover, technology today is driven by artificial intelligence (AI),” PM Modi had told IANS.

The digital revolution, driven by UPI and QR-code-based payments, has shown to the world that DPIs like UPI, Aadhaar, and DigiLocker can transform millions of lives.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) An international team of scientists has identified genes that can indirectly influence the age at which girls have their first period by accelerating weight gain in childhood.

The team led by the University of Cambridge studied the DNA of around 800,000 women from Europe, North America, China, Japan, and Korea.

Their results, published in the journal Nature Genetics, showed more than 1,000 variants — small changes in DNA — that influence the age of the first menstrual period. Around 600 of these variants were observed for the first time, the team said.

Normally periods occur between ages 10 to 15, but this has been getting earlier and earlier in recent decades.

While the reasons are not fully understood, the study found that 45 per cent of the discovered genetic variants affected puberty indirectly, by increasing weight gain in early childhood.

“Many of the genes we’ve found influence early puberty by first accelerating weight gain in infants and young children. This can then lead to potentially serious health problems in later life, as having earlier puberty leads to higher rates of overweight and obesity in adulthood,” said Professor John Perry, at the varsity’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit.

The scientists also analysed rare genetic variants that are carried by very few people, but which can have large effects on puberty. For example, they found that one in 3,800 women carry variants in the gene ZNF483, which caused these women to experience puberty on average, 1.3 years later.

Dr. Katherine Kentistou, lead study investigator said that the team “identified six genes which all profoundly affect the timing of puberty”.

Besides causing early onset of periods in girls, these genes often had “the same impact on the timing of puberty in boys”.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Meta-owned WhatsApp on Monday said it banned more than 66 lakh accounts in India in the month of May for violating the laws of the land.

Out of 6,620,000 banned WhatsApp accounts, 1,255,000 were proactively blocked, before any reports from users, the social media company said in a statement.

The popular mobile messaging platform, which has more than 550 million users in India, received 13,367 grievances from the country, and the records “actioned” were just 31.

The account “Actioned” means complaints where WhatsApp took remedial action.

WhatsApp also received 11 orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee in the country and complied with both, according to its monthly compliance report as per the new Indian IT Rules 2021.

“We will continue with transparency to our work and include information about our efforts in future reports,” said the company.

For April, the Meta-owned platform banned more than 71 lakh accounts in the country.

The platform received a record 10,554 complaint reports in March, and the records “actioned” were 11.

The company employs a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.

“We enable users to block contacts and to report problematic content and contacts to us from inside the app. We pay close attention to user feedback and engage with specialists in stemming misinformation, promoting cybersecurity, and preserving election integrity,” said WhatsApp.

–IANS

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