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Govt blocks 245 web pages for carrying morphed images of violence
New Delhi: The government has ordered blocking of around 245 web pages for carrying morphed images and videos, purportedly of communal violence in Assam.
The images and videos on these websites – most of which the government claims originated from Pakistan – have been blamed for incitement of Muslims and the resultant mass exodus of people who are natives of the north-eastern states from New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune back home.
The images and videos were morphed with some of them originally from earthquake affected sites in China. Morphing is a process that morphs (or changes) one image into another.
This is the first time India has faced cyber warfare on such a scale and the government is also considering taking up the findings of CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team-India) at the international forum.
On the recommendation of Home Ministry issued under section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000, 76 web pages were blocked on 18 August, 80 web pages on 19 August and 89 web pages on Monday. These intermediaries and international social networking sites were also requested to provide registration details and access logs of the persons who uploaded such content.
India has conveyed its concerns to Pakistan and has been assured the matter will be looked into if evidence if provided.
The objectionable content was first posted on 13 July and fake profiles were created for spreading morphed pictures, according to a Home Ministry report, prepared in the wake of the mass exodus following rumours about a possible attack on them.
Considering the sensitivity and after effects of such inflammatory and harmful content hosted on social networking sites, the Department of Electronics & Information Technology had issued an advisory on 17 August 2012 to all the intermediaries including national and international social networking sites, advising them to take necessary action to disable such inflammatory and hateful content hosted on their websites on priority basis.
The department also called a meeting of the representatives of international social networking sites based in India and advised them to take all possible action to disable such content immediately.
The initial response from international social networking sites indicates that such content has been hosted from outside the country and to a large extent from the neighboring country.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
