iWorld
Govt’s Digital India Act to monitor OTT, social media & metaverse
Mumbai: The Digital India Act (DIA), India’s upcoming digital regulatory framework, will have jurisdiction over OTT and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and the Metaverse, according to media reports.
Any violations of content guidelines by OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, such as spreading misinformation or inciting violence, will be monitored by the DIA.
Tdy @GoI_MeitY withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill,2021 from Parliament
This will soon be replaced by a comprehensive framewrk of Global std laws includng Digital Privacy laws for contemporary & future chllnges n catalyze PM @narendramodi ji vision of #IndiaTechade pic.twitter.com/4qfjmKnfPM
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) August 3, 2022
The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) is working to replace the existing IT Act 2000 by the winter session of parliament. MeitY is rushing to finish the legislation by the deadline, which will include specific rules for women’s and children’s online safety.
The Digital India Act will cover social media, OTT platforms, and online apps, as well as web3 applications such as the metaverse and blockchain.
It was previously reported that the proposed Digital India Act would oversee laws dealing with cybercrime and e-commerce, but new reports indicate that the government has broadened the scope of the DIA.
In order to create the Digital India Act, the regulators have studied similar internet laws from other countries, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and laws in Singapore and Australia.
The government has also formed a special committee to review the rules from a technological and legal perspective.
The government will have the ability to request that OTT platforms remove content that transgresses the aforementioned rules, with the DIA serving as the highest authority in this regard.
iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
