Beijing, Jun 15: China is locking now ten more neighbourhoods in Beijing to try and contain the spread of a new coronavirus outbreak linked to a food market, authorities announced Monday.
City official Li Junjie said at a press conference that fresh cases had been found in a second wholesale market in northwestern Haidian district, and as a result, the market and nearby schools would be closed, and people living in ten communities around it placed under lockdown.
Islamabad, Feb 29: A coalition comprising digital media giants Facebook, Google and Twitter (among others) have spoken out against the new regulations approved by the Pakistani government for social media, threatening to suspend services in the country if the rules were not revised, it was reported.
In a letter to Prime Minster Imran Khan earlier this month, the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) called on his government to revise the new sets of rules and regulations for social media, The News International reported on Friday.
"The rules as currently written would make it extremely difficult for AIC Members to make their services available to Pakistani users and businesses," reads the letter, referring to the Citizens Protection Rules (Against Online Harm).
The new set of regulations makes it compulsory for social media companies to open offices in Islamabad, build data servers to store information and take down content upon identification by authorities.
Failure to comply with the authorities in Pakistan will result in heavy fines and possible termination of services.
It said that the regulations were causing "international companies to re-evaluate their view of the regulatory environment in Pakistan, and their willingness to operate in the country".
Referring to the rules as "vague and arbitrary in nature", the AIC said that it was forcing them to go against established norms of user privacy and freedom of expression.
"We are not against regulation of social media, and we acknowledge that Pakistan already has an extensive legislative framework governing online content. However, these Rules fail to address crucial issues such as internationally recognized rights to individual expression and privacy," The News International quoted the letter as saying.
According to the law, authorities will be able to take action against Pakistanis found guilty of targeting state institutions at home and abroad on social media.
The law will also help the law enforcement authorities obtain access to data of accounts found involved in suspicious activities.
It would be the said authority's prerogative to identify objectionable content to the social media platforms to be taken down.
In case of failure to comply within 15 days, it would have the power to suspend their services or impose a fine worth up to 500 million Pakistani rupees ($3 million).
Washington, May 28: US President Donald Trump has warned social media giants that his government could "strongly regulate" or "close them down" after Twitter fact-checked one of his tweets for the first time.
"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices," Xinhua news agency reported citing Trump as saying in a tweet to his 80 million followers on Wednesday.
"We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."
Later in the day, he said that Twitter "has now shown everything we have been saying about them... is correct" and vowed "big action to follow".
The President's remarks came after Twitter slapped a warning label on one of his tweets on Tuesday, cautioning readers "Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud".
It was in response to Trump's tweet, without providing evidence, said: "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent."
Also Read: Obama was ‘grossly incompetent president’, says Donald Trump
It is unclear what regulatory steps the president could take without new laws passed by Congress, the BBC reported.
The White House is yet to offer further details.
Earlier, Trump has accused Twitter of interfering in this year's US presidential election scheduled for November, saying the company was "completely stifling free speech, and I, as president, will not allow it to happen".
With more than 52,000 tweets currently to his name, Trump is a prolific tweeter and relies on the platform to disseminate his views to millions of people.
He has used Twitter to launch attacks on opponents, with targets ranging from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his political rivals in the US.
In 2017 he used anti-Muslim tweets aimed at London Mayor Sadiq Khan to serve a domestic political purpose of warning about immigration.
New York, Jan 11: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday renewed a six-year-long cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries mechanism into Syria.
According to Sputnik, the Security Council voted in favour of a resolution on Friday that allows cross border deliveries to be conducted via Turkey, preserving two checkpoints and excluding the Al-Yarubiyah border crossing with Iraq and the Al-Ramtha crossing with Jordan, until July 10, 2020.
Russia proposed to amend the adopted resolution by replacing a part of the draft which stipulates that humanitarian assistance into Syria should be delivered based on the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence by the phrase that such aid should be provided "in accordance with the guiding principles of humanitarian emergency assistance, as contained in UNGA resolution 46/182."
The agreement was reached after Belgium and Germany decided to amend the original version of their joint resolution, which proposed keeping three points for cross-border deliveries into the Arab republic.
In December last year, the United Nations had said that over 235,000 people fled the Idlib region in the last two weeks after Russia and Syria launched airstrikes in a bid to take over the last major opposition bastion.
Russia backed Syria government launched a fresh assault to capture the province.
Syrian Bashar al-Assad regime, backed by Iran, has reportedly promised to take back the rebel-controlled area and broke a ceasefire that was announced in August.
They have since December 19 seized dozens of towns and villages from armed fighters amid clashes that have killed hundreds on both sides.
Comments
Add new comment