iWorld
WhatsApp offers to track ‘dubious’ individuals for Indian govt
MUMBAI: Facebook vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg met home minister Amit Shah, national security adviser Ajit Doval, IT and communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and commerce minister Piyush Goyal regarding the dispute over traceability of messages in WhatApp. However, it remained unresolved.
According to an ET report, Clegg offered to track WhatsApp communication activities of persons deemed “dubious or suspicious” by government agencies. However, Facebook will only do this for persons identified by the government from now on. The company also does not want to break end-to-end encryption, which is at the core of the traceability issue.
Clegg also informed that instead of message content, Facebook could help with metadata. His discussion with Shah was around protecting end-to-end encryption as well as sharing different forms of signals in response to legal requests that can be helpful.
Clegg also commented that data localisation will create "balkanisation" of the internet and make it unlikely that the next Facebook or Google will come from India.
On Friday, the Supreme Court asked the government for an update on the proposed intermediary guidelines which mandate traceability for social media companies such as Facebook when content is deemed officially to have created law and order problems.
iWorld
Matka King campaign turns Mumbai into a city of cards
Massive card billboard, buses and shelters recreate 1960s Bombay.
MUMBAI: Mumbai isn’t just shuffling traffic this week, it’s dealing in drama, one card at a time. A high-impact outdoor campaign for Matka King has quite literally taken over the city, transforming everyday streets into a living, breathing throwback to the world of 1960s Bombay. At the centre of the spectacle is a towering billboard near the city’s T1 airport, created by visual artist Rob, assembling hundreds of playing cards into a striking portrait of Brij Bhatti, the infamous Matka King portrayed by Vijay Varma. The installation doesn’t just sit on the skyline; it commands attention, pulling eyes upward in a city otherwise known for looking straight ahead.
But the campaign doesn’t stop at a single visual. The streets themselves have been drafted into the narrative. Vehicles wrapped entirely in vintage playing card designs are cruising through Mumbai, while bus shelters constructed to resemble houses of cards have begun appearing across key locations. The effect is immersive less an advertisement and more a temporary rewriting of the city’s visual language, where modern Mumbai briefly slips into a stylised past.
The campaign leans heavily into experiential storytelling, extending the show’s world beyond screens and into public spaces. By using tactile, physical installations rather than purely digital amplification, it taps into a growing trend in entertainment marketing where scale, spectacle and shareability converge to create cultural moments rather than just promotional bursts.
Created by Abhay Koranne and directed by Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, the series features a wide ensemble cast including Kritika Kamra, Sai Tamhankar, Siddharth Jadhav and Gulshan Grover, among others. Produced under banners including Roy Kapur Films, the show is currently streaming on Prime Video across India and more than 240 countries and territories.
For now, though, the real action isn’t just on screen, it’s unfolding at traffic signals, bus stops and billboards. In a city that rarely pauses, this is one campaign that has managed to stop people mid-step and deal itself straight into public attention.
