Vidhi covers business of media and entertainment, sports and pop culture for Hindustan Times.
Articles by Vidhi Choudhary
India adds 40 mn new internet users each year
This is due to the rise of the non-English speaking internet user. Google’s latest report said that nine out of 10 new internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users.
Updated on May 10, 2019 02:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
BJP outspends Congress, others in social media advertising
The data shows that so far the BJP has spent ₹25 crore in advertisements across Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.
Published on May 03, 2019 11:35 PM IST
New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Avengers: Endgame may mirror Baahubali success
In April 2017, Baahubali 2 smashed box office records to become India’s top grossing film in just six days.
Published on Apr 26, 2019 02:22 PM IST
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Twitter users can now report misleading tweets on polls
The rules will also include misleading information about requirements for voting, including identification requirements, misleading statements or information about the official announced date or time of an election.
Updated on Apr 24, 2019 11:27 PM IST
New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Netflix to stream 10 more original films in India, partners with Shah Rukh, Karan Johar
Netflix has partnered with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Ronnie Screwala’s RSVP for the new movies
Updated on Apr 15, 2019 11:25 AM IST
BJP tops ad spend on Google and YouTube
The BJP spent ₹1.21 crore of the ₹3.76 crore expended by political parties on ads published on Google and YouTube between 19 February and 4 April, said the report.
Updated on Apr 05, 2019 08:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
To curb fake news in poll season, WhatsApp starts ‘tipline’
WhatsApp has been at the center of controversy in India since last year after false messages spread on its platform sparked a number of mob lynchings.
Updated on Apr 03, 2019 12:16 AM IST
Facebook deletes hundreds of accounts, pages ‘linked’ to BJP, Congress
According to Facebook, the network associated with the Congress included 549 accounts and 138 pages, which reached 206,000 followers.
Updated on Apr 01, 2019 11:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Facebook apologises for identifying Kashmir as independent
Facebook on Wednesday apologised for identifying Kashmir independent of India in a blog post while referring to geographies, where multiple networks tied to Iran engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
Published on Mar 28, 2019 12:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Exclusive: It was hard for me to become vulnerable, says Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps speaks on his preparations for the Olympics, his struggles with depression, and what he expects from the 2020 Tokyo Games
Updated on Apr 25, 2020 02:57 PM IST
HIndustan Times, New Delhi | Rudraneil Sengupta & Vidhi Choudhary
Flying Fish out of water: ‘I’d rather run than swim,’ says Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps has been the rare athlete who has openly spoken about his struggle with depression and mental health, the other side of his glittering athletic career.
Updated on Mar 27, 2019 07:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Rudraneil Sengupta and Vidhi Choudhary
Social media giants to draft ethics code for polls
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and social media intermediaries on Tuesday agreed to draft a code of ethics for the industry in the next 24 hours after being asked to do so by the Election Commission (EC).
Updated on Mar 20, 2019 07:34 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Vidhi Choudhary
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Politics goes TikTok in new-age campaigning
The app is TikTok, and its virtually inexhaustible library of prompts, and easy editing tools, using which people can create their own short videos, has resulted in a veritable deluge of political memes or just political videos.
Updated on Mar 19, 2019 04:51 PM IST
New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Parliamentary panel asks Facebook to curb divisive posts on platforms
The panel, citing tensions between India and Pakistan following the February 14 Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir that left at least 40 paramilitary troopers dead, is learnt to have asked Facebook to ensure there is no threat of information leakage though social media.
Updated on Mar 07, 2019 07:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Vidhi Choudhary
India’s air strike, Pak response step up heat on Twitter
Escalating tensions between India and Pakistan dominated Twitter with 17.39 million conversations about the issue shared on February 26 and 27, according to Bengaluru-based digital marketing agency, Autumn Grey.
Published on Feb 28, 2019 01:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
‘No evidence of foreign interference in India polls yet’: Twitter vice-president Colin Crowell
Twitter vice-president Colin Crowell spoke about the meeting with the parliamentary committee, responded to allegations of a perceived political bias.
Updated on Feb 26, 2019 10:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Government renews warnings to social media sites on polls
Prasad’s comments come at a time when Twitter is fighting charges of a perceived bias against right-wing handles on the micro-blogging platform. Earlier this month, Bharatiya Janata Party supporters alleged that Twitter was biased against them.
Published on Feb 22, 2019 11:34 PM IST
New Delhi | Kumar Uttam, Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Vidhi Choudhary
Twitter’s public policy head Colin Crowell to attend parliamentary panel on Monday
For India, political advertisers that fall under the Political Campaigning Policy, people will be able to see further details, including billing information, ad spend, and impressions data per tweet. Additionally, Twitter will be showing demographic targeting data for the ads being served, both intended by the advertiser and actually delivered by Twitter.
Updated on Feb 22, 2019 02:35 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
‘Willing to participate, but need more time’: Twitter on parliamentary panel hearing
Executives from social media firm Twitter’s US headquarters will not appear before a parliamentary panel that has summoned them on Monday over perceived bias towards right-wing handles on the micro-blogging platform.
Updated on Feb 10, 2019 07:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Vidhi Choudhary
Political ideologies don’t dictate policy, product changes: Twitter
Explaining how trending topics on Twitter work, the US-based microblogging platform said the velocity or the number of tweets in a given time period and not the total number of tweets decides what is trending.
Updated on Feb 08, 2019 11:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Political advertisements on Facebook to carry disclaimers
From 21 February only advertisers who have completed authorisations and disclosed who is responsible for an ad will be allowed to run political ads in India.
Updated on Feb 08, 2019 07:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Ahead of LS polls, WhatsApp tells political parties not to spam users
WhatsApp has been at the centre of controversy in India since last year after false messages spread on its platform sparked a number of mob lynchings.
Updated on Feb 07, 2019 02:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Budget: Rise in demand may be limited to FMCG, say experts
While these sops will put some extra money in the hands of the two classes of consumers and boost demand for items of daily use and low-cost staples, they are not expected to lift purchases of more expensive items, executives at other consumer goods companies said.
Updated on Feb 02, 2019 09:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Data protection bill may get Cabinet nod next week
The data protection law, once passed, will protect citizens’ personal information such as health and financial data, religious or political affiliation, caste, tribe, gender, sexual orientation and biometric information.
Published on Jan 05, 2019 07:16 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Rajeev Jayaswal and Vidhi Choudhary
India on their minds
Netflix, now three years old in India, has spent more on local content here than anywhere else in the world, except the US. That’s given us the stellar Sacred Games. But is it enough to score over other streaming services?
Updated on Jan 06, 2019 11:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Vidhi Choudhary
Ad man Piyush Pandey to become global creative chief of Ogilvy
Piyush Pandey is the man behind the famous advertisement for Dairy Milk chocolate in which a girl breaks into a gleeful dance on the cricket pitch after a winning six is scored. That was in 1994. For him, it was just a nice story, but many interpreted it as an expression of freedom in those days.
Updated on Dec 05, 2018 11:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Using US polls insights to prepare for India elections, says Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said they are mainly learning from what happened in the 2016 US elections, the Mexico elections and the 2018 midterm elections. They have also built models to identify where people are trying to game the system.
Updated on Nov 15, 2018 08:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary and Samarth Bansal
What drives fake news in India? Here’s what a BBC study found out
Since May this year, at least 30 people have been killed in India in mob violence over rumours circulating on messaging service WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
Updated on Nov 12, 2018 08:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary, New Delhi
Brazil’s experience a red flag for WhatsApp in Indian polls, say experts
Data shows that the share of active WhatsApp users in rural India has doubled since 2017, according to a survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
Published on Oct 21, 2018 07:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
Rural Indians don’t trust messages on WhatsApp blindly: Survey
Only 8% of the respondents marked 10 as their trust score on a scale of 1-10, where 1 stands for complete distrust and 10 for complete trust, in information received on WhatsApp, found a survey.
Updated on Oct 19, 2018 01:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Vidhi Choudhary
