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HuffPost India is history, thanks to new FDI norms
- bzb6 6y agoDoesn’t seem so crazy that they don’t want some foreign media mogul to influence their country.
- jacquesm 6y agoEver heard of Rupert Murdoch?
- ashleshbiradar 6y agoa big chunk of the mainstream traditional media in India is pro-establishment and pro-government. Digital news organizations were predominantly anti-establishment, thus the efforts by the government to toe the organizations to its line. First it introduced the FDI regulations for foreign media as mentioned in the article. Second they have recently proposed to bring Digital news organizations and streaming platforms under regulation of the central government https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/11/india-to-regulate-netflix-and-amazon-streaming-content https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/11/india-to-regul... They brought FCRA for NGOs and civil societies which is considered a death kneel for civil societies in India. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/fcra-bill-virtually-makes-it-impossible-for-ngos-to-function/article32664359.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/fcra-bill-virtually-m... and have been harassing Amnesty International India for years now, which recently concluded to AII shutting down India operations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/amnesty-to-halt-work-in-india-due-to-government-witch-hunt https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/amnesty-to-hal...
- threw234342543 6y agoSo Indian govt. bad, foreign unaccountable govt./orgs good ? Gee... I wonder why India was colonized for close to a millennia.
- AntiImperialist 6y agoa big chunk of the mainstream traditional media in India is pro-establishment and pro-government And? Why would you not be pro your own government? Should the media be against the government that people elect and which protects people's rights? Should the media be pro foreign governments and agencies?
- ponker 6y agoAsk nicely and Modi might give you a courtesy tap.
- bobthepanda 6y agoA good level of skepticism is a healthy check on corruption. People (for now) in the minority opposition should have some voice, it'd be odd if there weren't opposition outlets to say anything contrary. The powers that be protects people's rights, until they don't, and you don't want to be the proverbial frog in the pot coming to a boil.
- AntiImperialist 6y agoI agree. However, I don't think we have a choice. At this point, the only two choices seem to be either to be governed by a tyrannical government fueled by national interests or a tyrannical government controlled by foreign interests. I believe in decentralization of power, a structure where the governed are closer to those who govern them. I think this leads to people in power having more skin in the game.
- newswasboring 6y agoWe are a parliamentary democracy, we already have decentralization. We willingly let go because of the false dichotomy you present.
- pfortuny 6y agoFreedom of the press is (should be) independent if the owner.
- AntiImperialist 6y agoFundamentalism or extreme devotion to ideology is not a strength, it's a weakness... and that applies to "free speech" or "freedom of press" just as much to anything else. If you keep defending the freedom of those whose goal is to take away your freedom, your freedom won't last. This idea is not new (look up "paradox of tolerance").
- jhowell 6y agoI believe Rupert Murdoch, who is Australian became a US citizen to take ownership of US television stations. He seems to have a significant influence here (as well as Europe and Asia). So crazy enough for established procedures.
- throw93 6y agoIt is crazy because in India political parties can indirectly accept foreign funding through a recent change in constitution by ruling party. Foreign funding of political parties is equally if not more dangerous than foreign funding of news media.
- blueblisters 6y agoAlso these donations are anonymous (to the public) so it's even more egregious that the opposition leaders have not managed to make this into a larger issue (maybe it benefits all parties?).
- fakedang 6y agoIncorrect. The opposition in India has been largely castrated, mocked and vilified by media sources in most of the country, especially non-English media. For the record, I read somewhere that the current Indian ruling party is the wealthiest ruling party in the world with an AUM of $3B (this is an outdated number btw). Meanwhile the opposition has barely enough money to fund the construction of its own headquarters.
- ponker 6y agoWell yes, they can easily suppress anti-government writing from Indian residents with credible threats of violence. This law is to protect the government from critics abroad where the Indian government cannot reach.
- factorialboy 6y agoHuffpost.in was not at all a popular media outlet. I doubt it had any significant revenue. At some point, fundamentals of the business matter.
- jhowell 6y ago> I doubt it had any significant revenue. We don't know, and what's significant? Return on investment regardless of size of investment is significant when running any business. > At some point, fundamentals of the business matter. I think the fundamental outlined in the article is "Narendra Modi government’s new foreign direct investment norms for digital media," and not described in relation to revenue.
- factorialboy 6y agoGiven that they cannot carry out their ops without foreign investment is clear indication that the business was unsustainable. > I think the fundamental outlined in the article is "Narendra Modi government’s new foreign direct investment norms for digital media," and not described in relation to revenue. That's an opinion piece. The fact is they shut down operations. And if the reason is lack of foreign investment, then it's imminently obvious that they made no profits.
- square_usual 6y agoAmazon is losing tons of money in India, and they couldn't sustain that business without funding from their parent org. Should the government shut them down too?
- damnencryption 6y agoHow many big startups/companies in India are making enough profit to self sustain themselves currently? Jio, swiggy, Zomato, Tata motors, Amazon, flipkart, ola, big basket, oyo, Paytm, and the list goes on. Maybe we should shut them all down.
- 6y ago
- baloney1 6y agoLet's keep the extreme left-biased media in the holes like Portland where they belong.
- lucian1900 6y agoHuffPost is centre-right at best, what are you on about? If you want an example of left, look at the https://morningstaronline.co.uk https://morningstaronline.co.uk
- donw 6y agoGround News marks HuffPo as living solidly on the Left: https://ground.news/interest/25781bef-fab9-4951-8bff-5926d118178e/huffpost https://ground.news/interest/25781bef-fab9-4951-8bff-5926d11...
- tokai 6y agoThats an american site perpetuating the American delusion that centre right and right-wing are left and right.
- fakeyguy 6y agoThanks for this! Ground News has a handy bias checker add-on! Was searching for something like this. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ground-news-bias-checker/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ground-news-b...
- Dahoon 6y agoOn what Americans call Left and what the rest of the world call Right or Center-right. Since this is about India this is incorrect. HuffPost is center-right.
- vinay427 6y agoI wouldn't exactly consider the left in India, or most of the west for that matter, "left" of the American left. This is true on some dimensions but certainly not many others, at least speaking as someone who has lived in both the US and western Europe.
- kwonkicker 6y agoThats a big loss for all the 7 indians that were occasional huffpsot readers.
- lovelearning 6y agoWhat's with these frivolous low-effort comments nowadays on HN? It's starting to sound like Reddit and I don't mean that in a good way.
- knolax 6y agoThe people constantly complaining about "Russian bots" or "foreign election interference" are always the same ones demanding every other country import western media and social media with no restrictions.
- tasogare 6y agoThe same social media that are heavily interfering with elections themselves by the way of censorship.
- naruvimama 6y agoIf I had to fund a media organisation in a foreign country which only runs losses. Either I am a philanthropist or more likely have a sinister motive. Several foreign dictatorships are heavily invested in controlling the media narrative in India. This was perhaps triggered by the war with China. India's liberal foreign ownership gives China a one way strategic advantage.
- rainingcatndogs 6y agoBut unfortuanately(as a side effect?) policies like this hinders the operations of goodwill nonprofits like Amnesty International[1]. [1]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/amnesty-to-halt-work-in-india-due-to-government-witch-hunt https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/amnesty-to-hal...
- bzb6 6y agoAI is liberal imperialism. I disagree with calling it “goodwill” as if they were universally good.
- fakedang 6y agoLol, it's not a side effect. Huff Post and Amnesty Intl tend to lean liberal, which means butting heads with the current Hindu nationalist government and its agenda. As a very recent example, the Netflix kissing scene between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl generated great outrage within the ruling party, and was covered with great disdain (or not covered) by most local media, and once things got dicey, international media began covering it, albeit by taking a stance opposite to the government.
- amriksohata 6y agoGoodwill is a strong word with Amnesty International, as they have a political side[1] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Amnesty_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Amnesty_Internati...
- pmachinery 6y ago
- throw93 6y agoWhether HuffPost was popular in India is besides the point. To provide some contrast, the same govt amended a law originally designed to prohibit foreign funding of political parties and changed it to allow funding from local companies which have more than 50% foreign ownership. So basically political parties can indirectly accept foreign funds through above loophole which the ruling party itself created but news organizations cannot. “ the controlling Bharatiya Janata Party government passed a retroactive amendment through a 2016 Finance Bill that excludes from the definition of “foreign sourced” contributions from local companies even though a foreign company owns more than half their shares, provided certain direct investment requirements are met” Source: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/elections/foreign-involvement/india.php https://www.loc.gov/law/help/elections/foreign-involvement/i...
- ashleshbiradar 6y agoand interestingly, HuffPost India was the exclusive publisher of the Electoral Bonds series. here's a compilation of the entire series https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/ew07en/compilation_of_articles_and_resources_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/ew07en/compilation_o...
- naruvimama 6y ago> Whether HuffPost was popular in India is besides the point It is central, if they were popular and making money or if they were popular and have a wonderful future prospects, they wouldn't have to be propped up. And whoever is funding it could be motivated by not so charitable reasons.
- ashleshbiradar 6y agothere are dozens and dozens of businesses which are not profitable right now and burn a lot of cash, and yet they are operating. Almost all big startups dont make any profit.
- naruvimama 6y agoBut startups do not wind up their business because they expect a break through.
- fakeyguy 6y agoI can't say I am sad to see this. we have been seeing a lot of propaganda-type articles in some foreign owned media outlets. And given the China threat that is looming, it was expected.
- Dahoon 6y agoThere no more a "China threat" than there's a "US threat". Stop spreading FUD on HN. Also "China" is like "America". Geography, not countries.
- rtx 6y agoThey recently killed 20 Indian soldiers.
- Dahoon 6y agoYes, but while sad it doesn't mean PRC is a bigger threat than many others. 20 is a drop in the sea of people dead in Iraq for example. So to say there's a threat from PRC isn't a direct lie but it is laughably small compared to the threat from the US.
- fakeyguy 6y agoThere is. When you live here it's easy to see it. Tensions have been escalating for last 6 months. Hence many changes in Foreign investments - esp. from China.
- Dahoon 6y agoLet me ask you this: If you walk down a busy street, which are the most likely you see: McDonald's or whatever equivalent they have in China? If you look at people using computers do they use Facebook and Google or Renren and Baidu? Do you see more Mandarin taught in schools or English? Chinese or western TV? Clearly culturally there are way more from the US. Tensions isn't because "China is taking over". Culturally India have already been taken over years ago. If anything India is now trying to get away from colonial times and English/American meddling. One can only hope India rises as a power player in its own right. Pointing fingers at PRC is just propaganda to get people to look away from national problems and the real foreign investment boogeymen which has been in India all along and don't want more competition.
- Ice_cream_suit 6y agoThis keeps out foreign manipulators like the Murdochs.
- throwaway4good 6y agoI don't quite understand this. Why can't HuffPost India just not simply operate from the US?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Dahoon 6y agoYou need local journalists to write local news.
- sa1 6y ago> You need local journalists to write local news. Local journalists are still free to write for foreign publications. What stops them now? From what I see, this rule is trivially bypassed. Imagine BBC UK having a India section, and buying stories from Indian journalists(which they already do).
- oytis 6y ago> Local journalists are still free to write for foreign publications. I don't know about India specifically, but in many countries working for the press gives you some special status. You are not supposed to be attacked by the police during protests, government officials owe some basic comment to you etc. Basically rights that allow you to do journalist's job legally and relatively safely. Foreign media probably don't enjoy the same privileges. Also, when your freedom is being taken from you, finding loopholes doesn't really work in middle/long term. The regime has all the possibilities to close them one by one.
- sa1 6y agoI agree with you regarding all points. As someone living in India, I'm concerned with the eroding freedom. But as a person always looking for hacks, I'm also desperate for publications to simply not die off and this was one way.
- 6y ago
- oytis 6y agoFunny how all the authoritarian governments are following the same script. Restricting foreign investment in media while keeping the inland investors under control sounds a lot like my native Russia.
- ashleshbiradar 6y agousing the narrative of "national security" to justify authoritarian moves, classic textbook move.
- rtx 6y agoI think it started with US congress's opposition to Russian money in media. Now everyone is following that.
- oytis 6y agoAt least in Russia the law restricting foreign investment in media was passed in 2014. China probably never allowed foreign investment in media in the first place. India is just late to the dictatorship club - as little as I understand Indian politics, it was pretty democratic before the latest nationalist government.
- Lol_mronsz_u 6y agoLol look this thread so ignorant, why would any country want it's population to get subverted by globalists ??? Just look at the history, don't make the same mistakes.
- manifestdissent 6y agoThe nationalism in these comments isn’t surprising. But it is disappointing. Several comments are implying that HuffPo is an influence operation or conspiracy... ??? There’s a clear boogeyman (the Chinese) and a grand arching conspiracy stopping the country from being great. This is fascism 101
- square_usual 6y agoFrom personal experience, most Indians in the tech space are conservative-leaning. I don't network a lot, but I do talk to people enough to know that "liberal" in the western sense is a very rare viewpoint in this industry. E: I should mention that I am Indian.
- manifestdissent 6y agoThe country has become nationalistic to a nonsensical degree. I’ve met multiple people who have refused to use PayTM because they think it is Chinese. This won’t end well.
- square_usual 6y agoThat is really funny to me, because PayTM's founder is supposedly very tight with the BJP, and they also rode the demonetization wave hard with the full-page ad featuring Modi.
- manifestdissent 6y agoFascism rarely has any internal consistency or meaning. It’s an ideology of hate towards the other and sucks to be you if you’re the other. It’s not surprising that they turned on him. If he had bothered to read history, he’d have read what happens to most supporters and collaborators of such regimes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives Fascists are an ouroboros of hate. They all eat themselves.
- cyberpsybin 6y agoGood. Every country should keep these billionaire mogul funded trash american media outlets out. It's how US interferes with elections in other nations.
- ashleshbiradar 6y agoHuffpost was owned by Verizon, before it was sold to Buzzfeed recently
- maggagaggaa 6y agobased Hindus another L for the kikes
- maggagaggaa 6y agobased Hindus another L for the kike media
- publicola1990 6y agoSome in the west think that India is western like democracy, but moves like this indicate that the government there is actually a regressive and almost authoritarian in nature, it society is far from reaching say the level of openness of other modern democracy, and the current government is hell bent on retarding and reversing all tendencies towards achieving a westernized polity.
- damnencryption 6y agoI think the definition of democracy exclude many countries today. One of the major point of democracy which I was taught in my social class was that we need enough choices in our parties and candidates. India doesn't have that. There are only two significant political parties at the central level and one of them has been weakened too much to be a competitor anymore. There was a question in my exam about this too. Why are x countries not democratic despite having public elections? Real democracy needs more than two parties.
- gen_greyface 6y agoAh i feel sad looking at the comments, most trying to fan their arguments against huffpost specifically, but ignoring the FDI norms.
- realshadow 6y agoso no more clickbait articles then.. thanks india
- newswasboring 6y agoKeeping aside the point whether I like the decision or not (I don't), there is still a major flaw in the law which will make sure it does not achieve its goal of reducing foreign influence in India. In today's world, entertainment channels influence people's views, including political views, much more than news channels. People are increasingly making their opinions based on whatsapp forwards and twitter/tiktok trends. There is no restrictions on FDI in those.
- naruvimama 6y agoFor people comparing with Europe, please be informed about the "compulsory media licenses" in many of these countries.
- publicola1990 6y agoIndia really needs a stern kick in the back from the West to stop is continuing authoritarian tendencies and its slide into becoming a nominal democracy like Turkey and Iran.
- Dharmakirti 6y ago> India really needs a stern kick in the back from the West Didn't take long for the racist colonialists to crawl out of the woodworks, did it?
- throw93 6y agoProps to newslaundry.com for posting this story. They show nuances that aren't covered by popular news channels in India. e.g. they explained Krishi(farmer) Bill, Citizenship Amendment Bill in a fun and logical way. Meanwhile many popular TV news channels in India are busy shouting from top of their lungs to seek attention. It's hard not to damage your ears and logical thinking when listening to some Indian news channels. Ref - https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/trp-scap-indian-news-channels-entertainment-republic-tv-cvoter-survey https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/trp-scap-indian-news-..., https://www.vice.com/en/article/nn9yjw/the-newshour-arnab-goswami-839 https://www.vice.com/en/article/nn9yjw/the-newshour-arnab-go...
- naruvimama 6y agoA general theme around news about India involves a healthy dose of "Hinduism how regressive" If yoga, turmeric latte and vegetarianism is not progressive enough. Perhaps one can add a healthy helping of goddess worships, nature worship and animal worship.