iWorld
SC seeks Centre’s response on regulating OTT platforms
KOLKATA: It seems that when it comes to self-regulation, OTTs have a tough long road ahead, as the supreme court has sought the centre's response on a public interest litigation (PIL) for regulating these platforms by an autonomous body.
According to a PTI report, a bench of the apex court comprising chief justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has issued notices to the central government, the ministry o information and broadcasting (MIB) and internet and mobile association of India (IAMAI) on the possibility of setting up a proper body for monitoring and management of content across OTT and digital media platforms.
The plea was filed by advocates Shashank Shekhar Jha and Apurva Arhatia. The petitioners have requested the court to order the government to constitute an autonomous body to monitor and regulate online video content. The petition added that the board should be headed by an IAS officer and have members from various fields.
“With cinema theatres unlikely to open anytime soon in the country, OTT/Streaming and different digital media platforms have surely given a way out for the filmmakers and artists to release their content without being worried about getting clearance certificates for their films and series from the censor board,” the plea stated.
The PIL has claimed that lack of legislation governing those platforms is turning out to be more prominent with several incidents.
According to the petitioners: “The government is facing heat to fill this lacuna with regulations from the public and the Judiciary; still the relevant government departments have not done anything significant to regularise these OTT/Streaming Platforms.”
None of the OTT/streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, and Disney+Hotstar have signed the self-regulation provided by MIB since February 2020, the plea said.
However, the government recently stated it is not under the process of framing laws for these platforms. It added that the matter may be looked into afresh when more clarity emerges in international jurisdictions.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
