Karnataka achieves open defection free status in rural areas

Udupi: A government medical officer at the Kundapur taluk government hospital has been relieved from the service following an FIR registered against him in connection with a complaint of mental, sexual harassment and misconduct and also a series of complaints from general public.

Udupi Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr K Vidya Kumari has issued an order relieving Dr Robert Rebello who was serving as an administrative medical officer at taluk hospital in Kundapur.

He has been directed to report at the Office of the Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare, Bengaluru, with immediate effect.

A woman medical officer has filed a criminal case accusing Rebello of mentally and sexually harassing her and an FIR was also registered in this regard.

The DC in her order stated that Rebello has been relieved from the service to ensure that he does not interfere in the investigation and to prevent him from destroying any evidence.

Even the general public also had complained against Rebello, following which a committee led by DHO had conducted a joint inspection and had submitted a report to the DC.

Bengaluru: Suspended JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna, who is facing allegations of sexually abusing several women, on Wednesday moved a Special Court here seeking anticipatory bail in a rape case registered against him.

According to official sources, Prajwal has booked a return flight ticket to Bengaluru from Munich on May 30, and is expected to land in the city in the small hours of May 31.

His advocate filed an anticipatory bail application in the Special Court for cases involving MPs/MLAs.

Prajwal, grandson of JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, is accused in an alleged rape and sexual harassment case involving a 47-year-old woman.

He reportedly left for Germany on April 27, a day after Hassan LS seat went to polls, and is still at large.

A Special Court for Elected Representatives has issued an arrest warrant on May 18 against Prajwal Revanna, following an application moved by the SIT.

However, later the SIT arrested his father and JD(S) MLA H D Revanna, who is allegedly involved in kidnapping the woman.

All eyes are on Kempegowda International Airport where Prajwal is expected to arrive on May 31, and the SIT is likely to arrest him the moment he lands.

Meanwhile, Prajwal's mother Bhavani Revanna has filed an anticipatory bail in the special court for elected representatives fearing arrest in the kidnap case linked to her husband.

The SIT filed objections to granting the anticipatory bail to her and also sought to cancel the interim anticipatory bail issued to H D Revanna in the same case.

Bhavani Revanna's anticipatory bail order is reserved for May 31.

SIT seizes pillows, bed

Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the sexual abuse case against MP Prajwal Revanna on Wednesday has seized the pillows, bed and bed sheets from the MP's government house in Hassan.

As the date of MP Prajwal Revanna's return to Bengaluru nears, the SIT has intensified its probe.

The SIT and Forensic Science Lab team, which began inspection at the MP's house in Hassan, on Tuesday afternoon continued the search till 4 am on Wednesday. The belongings were seized by the SIT sleuths after a 10-hour long inspection at the government house of the MP on R C Road in Hassan.

Meanwhile, Naveen Gowda and Chetan Gowda, the duo arrested in connection with the circulation of pen drive containing sleaze videos, were brought to Hassan for spot mahazar.

They were subjected to medical examinations at the Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences and were questioned by the Cyber crime police ASP M K Thammaiah and Inspector Jagadish. They were also taken to their houses in Belur and Shravanabelagola for mahazar.

The accused were produced before the second additional district and sessions court in Hassan. They court has remanded them to SIT custody for three days, till June 1.

They will be produced before the court again at 4.30 pm on June 1 when the custody ends.

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.