Wilful defaulter tag: Angry Mallya says United Bank is making him a bakra'

The VTU Mangaluru division inter-collegiate football tournament was inaugurated on May 22, 2023, at P.A. College of Engineering, Nadupadavu. The inaugural ceremony was graced by Mr. Abdullah, a renowned footballer and businessman, who served as the chief guest and initiated the tournament with a ceremonial kick-off.

Dr Ramis M.K., the Principal of P.A. College of Engineering, highlighted the significance of student participation in sports, especially football, underscoring elements such as player coordination, strategic planning, team spirit, skill development, and techniques.

The ceremony was also attended by several notable figures, including Mr. Sharfuddin P. K.  Assistant General Manager of Campus, PAET; Dr. Sayyad Ameen Ahammad,  Dean of Student Affairs (PAET) and Dr. Sharmila Kumari, Vice Principal of P.A. College of Engineering; Mr. Niyaz Khan from the HR department of PAET; and Dr. Iqbal, Director of Physical Education, who delivered the welcome address. The event was anchored by Prof. Salim, Department of Electronics & Communication. 

Seventeen teams from the VTU Mangalore Division is participating in this esteemed tournament, demonstrating sportsmanship and competitive spirit among the colleges.

Udupi: A teenage boy, identified as Nithin, ended his life by suicide after reportedly being humiliated by the head teacher of his school. The incident occurred two days ago, and the police have yet to take action against the accused.

Nithin, 16, a resident of Shiroor in Byndoor, had gone to his government high school on May 18 to collect his Transfer Certificate (TC) after completing his SSLC. However, not only was his request for the TC denied, but he was also allegedly insulted by the head teacher.

On May 20, Nithin informed his father, Nagaraj, about his intention to visit the school to collect the TC. Tragically, between 12 noon and 12:30 pm, when no one was at home, Nithin hanged himself. In his death note, he accused the head teacher of insulting him and refusing to issue the TC, which led to his decision to end his life.

A case has been registered by the Byndoor police under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC. Nithin's family members staged a protest in front of the Byndoor police station on Tuesday, demanding the arrest of those responsible for his suicide.

DySP of Kundapura Belliappa, probationary IPS officer Dr. Harsha Priyamvada, and Byndoor CI Savitra Tez held discussions with the public, assuring them that investigations are underway and that the case is being taken seriously. They promised that a suitable report would be published within a week following further investigation and interrogation. They also assured that stringent action would be taken against the culprits if sufficient evidence is found.

Village elders, social leaders, and locals provided support to Nithin's grieving family. His mortal remains were later taken home for the final rites.

India is currently polling in the Lok Sabha elections, and AI-generated videos that spread disinformation have emerged as a major threat. As per a report, Meta approved several political advertisements manipulated by Artificial Intelligence that spread disinformation during Lok Sabha elections 2024.

Facebook reportedly approved ads that contained slurs towards Muslims in India like “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned” along with disinformation about political leaders and other messages with Hindu supremacist language.

Another advert approved by the owner of Facebook and Instagram called for an opposition leader's execution who as per a false claim sought to “erase Hindus from India”. This ad contained the image of a Pakistan flag alongside the message.

The report comes at a time when the social media platform X had to recently take down an animated video shared by the Karnataka unit of the BJP after an Election Commission direction.

India Civil Watch International (ICWI) and Ekō, a corporate accountability organisation created and submitted these adverts to Meta's ad library to test the company's mechanism to detect and block harmful political content.

All adverts “were created based upon real hate speech and disinformation prevalent in India, underscoring the capacity of social media platforms to amplify existing harmful narratives," the report mentioned.

The researchers submitted 22 adverts to Meta in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Kannada, of which 14 were approved. Another three were approved with small tweaks. However, once approved, the researchers immediately removed the ads before their publication.

The research concluded that Meta failed to detect the presence of AI-manipulated images in all of the approved ads.

While five of the adverts, including one with some allegations against PM Modi were rejected on charge of breaking Meta's policy on hate speech, the report noted that the 14 others approved targetted Muslims and “broke Meta’s own policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment, misinformation, and violence and incitement."

“Supremacists, racists and autocrats know they can use hyper-targeted ads to spread vile hate speech, share images of mosques burning and push violent conspiracy theories – and Meta will gladly take their money, no questions asked,” the Guardian quoted Maen Hammad, a campaigner at Ekō as saying.

In response, Meta clarified that they require advertisers to disclose their use of AI.

“When we find content, including ads, that violates our community standards or community guidelines, we remove it, regardless of its creation mechanism. AI-generated content is also eligible to be reviewed and rated by our network of independent factcheckers – once a content is labeled as ‘altered’ we reduce the content’s distribution. We also require advertisers globally to disclose when they use AI or digital methods to create or alter a political or social issue ad in certain cases," the company said in response.

Meanwhile, Meta has been accused in the past of failing to curb Islamophobia on its platforms.

“This election has shown once more that Meta doesn’t have a plan to address the landslide of hate speech and disinformation on its platform during these critical elections,” Hammad said questioning how one can trust Meta if it fails to detect even a handful of AI-generated images.