Brazil's Supreme Court justices agree to make social media companies liable for user content
illegal postings
by their users.
Gilmar Mendes
on Wednesday became the sixth of the court's 11 justices to vote to open a path for companies like Meta, X and Microsoft to be sued and pay fines for content published by their users. Voting is ongoing but a simple majority is all that is needed for the measure to pass.
The ruling will come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of possible
visa restrictions
against foreign officials allegedly involved in censoring American citizens.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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The only dissenting Brazilian justice so far is
Andre Mendonca
and his vote was made public last week.
The social media proposal would become law once voting is finished and the result is published. But Brazil's Congress could still pass another law to reverse the measure.
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The current legislation states social media companies can only be held responsible in those cases if they do not remove hazardous content after a court order.
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Time of India
15 minutes ago
- Time of India
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Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigns; BJP begins search for the next Vice-President, considering party insiders. 183 technical issues reported by five Indian airlines this year, while over 100 Air India pilots went on leave following the AI171 crash. The Karnataka High Court halts the deportation of a Russian woman's children, citing child rights in the Gokarna cave case. JD(U) Member of Parliament receives a show-cause notice for comments against SIR, causing embarrassment to the party. Today's international news headlines in English for school assembly, July 25, 2025 Thai and Cambodian soldiers clash near a disputed border, escalating tensions in the region. Qatar strengthens humanitarian support to Gaza, ramping up medical aid and food supplies. UN's top court issues a significant advisory opinion, recognizing a 'clean, healthy, and sustainable environment' as a human right. 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The Hindu
15 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Decoding ECI's counter affidavit on SIR
The story so far: The Election Commission of India (ECI) filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court on July 21, in response to the writ petition challenging the constitutionality of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise currently underway in Bihar. The text in the 789-page ECI affidavit is only 88 pages long; bulky annexures run into almost 700 pages. Around 625 pages of these annexures comprise representations received by the ECI from various political parties, along with their annexures. What's the rationale for a citizenship test? The compendium of complaints regarding defects in electoral rolls received by the ECI in 2024-2025 mostly contains those filed by BJP units from Delhi, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. One complaint each has been received from the AAP in Delhi, AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Maha Vikas Agadi (Congress, NCP-SP and Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra. A preliminary review of the complaints annexed with the ECI's affidavit reveals that they mostly pertain to typical defects like duplication of names in the voter list, non-deletion of deceased voters, exclusion of eligible voters and fake or fraudulent voter registration. None of the complaints involve the electoral rolls of Bihar, nor does any of the complaints allege instances of illegal migrants from foreign countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, etc. , being included in the electoral rolls in any State. The complaints, which account for almost 80% of the volume of ECI's counter affidavit, do not provide any evidence or justification for the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar or a nationwide citizenship test of electors across the country, for which the affidavit vehemently argues. Is it legally tenable? The counter affidavit invokes Article 326 which specifies that 'every person who is a citizen of India... shall be entitled to be registered as a voter', and also Section 15 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 which mandates the preparation of electoral rolls 'under the superintendence, direction and control' of the ECI, to insist on its having statutory authority to undertake a 'de novo' preparation of electoral rolls, requiring electors already registered in the electoral rolls to submit fresh documentary proof of their citizenship. The affidavit also rebuffs the apex court's advisory to include Aadhaar card, the Elector's Photo Identity card (EPIC) and ration card in the list of permissible documents for the SIR exercise. There are several fallacies in the ECI's arguments. First, the SIR process shifts the onus of citizenship proof on all existing electors whose names were registered by the ECI through due process. Another due process is also available for the deletion of non-citizens from electoral rolls on the basis of specific complaints backed by evidence. Have those due processes been rendered dysfunctional by the overwhelming nature of inclusion errors vis-a-vis illegal migrants? If so, the ECI's affidavit should have been able to present precise data on the number of complaints received on the inclusion of foreign nationals or illegal migrants in the electoral rolls of Bihar, and all other States for that matter. In the absence of such evidence, ECI's logic that inclusion in electoral rolls through summary revisions are only provisional and only those added or verified through intensive revisions like SIR have more authenticity, does not hold. Second, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, does not make any distinction between electors added through summary revisions and those added through 'special intensive revisions'. 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The ECI's counter affidavit has tried to counter criticisms regarding the exclusionary nature of the SIR exercise by highlighting that filled up enumeration forms have already been collected and digitised from over 90% of the 7.89 crore electors in Bihar. The moot point here is that the ECI's affidavit does not disclose the number or proportion of digitised enumeration forms which are accompanied with the required documents. Rather, the affidavit mentions that 'each elector who has submitted the enumeration form with or without documents will be included in the draft roll to be published August 1, 2025.' Thus, the coverage of over 90% of the electors in the SIR process has been attained by postponing the requirement for document submission along with the enumeration forms. The scrutiny of enumeration forms and documents by the electoral registration officers are to commence only after the draft rolls are published. This does not testify for the inclusivity of the entire SIR process. The status of the SIR exercise reported in the ECI's affidavit contains data till July 18, 2025. The updated status provided by the ECI's press note on July 22 is reproduced in Table 1. Till then, around 21.35 lakh (2.7%) electors were yet to receive and submit their enumeration forms. Major political parties of Bihar were officially requested by the ECI to connect with the remaining electors, through their functionaries and booth level agents. Till July 24, around 7 lakh forms were not received. Inability of the ECI in ensuring cent percent coverage through its own machinery of booth level officers (BLOs) and volunteers further exposes the impracticality of the SIR schedule. Moreover, over 53 lakh (6.7%) electors were not found at their residential addresses by the BLOs. While around 1 lakh among them are reported as 'not traceable' and another 7 lakh as multiple enrolments, the numbers of deceased electors at over 21.6 lakh (2.7%) and those permanently migrated at 31.5 lakh (4%), are quite significant. Whether errors are involved in such exclusions can be known only after the publication of the draft rolls. The constituency-wise distribution of these exclusions also remains unreported. The impact of deletion of migrated electors can be substantial if they are clustered within a few constituencies and demographics. Why is ECI not accepting Aadhaar, ration cards? ECI's non-acceptance of the apex court's advisory on including Aadhaar and ration cards in the list of indicative documents rests on tenuous grounds. The ECI's own enumeration form for SIR 2025 seeks the Aadhaar number from all electors, albeit on a voluntary basis. The ECI's affidavit states that statutorily 'Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship', which is specious logic, because statutorily the ECI has no mandate to conduct a citizenship test. In the case of ration cards, the ECI has cited 'widespread existence of fake ration cards' as the ground for non-acceptance. A data table in ECI's affidavit on the coverage of some of the eleven eligibility documents for SIR 2025 in Bihar show 13.89 crore 'Residence certificates' and 8.72 crore caste certificates issued from 2011 to 2025, far exceeding the total number of electors in the electoral rolls. If residence certificates can be accepted as eligibility proof of SIR 2025, despite their total number exceeding Bihar's current aggregate population, how can ration cards be rejected as a document on the grounds of being forgery-prone? Any widely accessible official card or document in a vast country like India with millions of poor and illiterate citizens would be prone to counterfeits — currency notes offering the most common example. Solutions need to be found in plugging systemic loopholes, enhanced vigilance and effectively designed counter-measures. Unless the ECI revises its rigid insistence on citizenship determination, the Bihar SIR exercise is likely to result in a fiasco bigger than the four-year-long NRC process in Assam between 2015 and 2019, which was eventually rejected by all those who demanded it after reportedly spending ₹1,600 crore of public money. (Prasenjit Bose is an economist and activist)
Time of India
18 minutes ago
- Time of India
India opens accounting, auditing services under trade pact with UK: GTRI
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