News / Author / Vidhi Choudhary

Vidhi Choudhary

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.

At 400 million active internet users, India is the second largest internet user market after China.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

business

Updated on May 10, 2019 02:02 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is way ahead of the Congress in advertising expenditure on social media at the end of the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.(REUTERS)

lok sabha election 2019

Published on May 03, 2019 11:35 PM IST

New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

The new film will play in several Indian languages, with 50-60% of the screening estimated to be in Hindi

hollywood

Published on Apr 26, 2019 02:22 PM IST

ByVidhi Choudhary

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.

lok sabha election 2019

Updated on Apr 24, 2019 11:27 PM IST

New Delhi | ByVidhi 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

Netflix has commissioned 10 new original films for India.

Updated on Apr 15, 2019 11:25 AM IST

ByVidhi Choudhary

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.

Image for representation.(Arun Sharma/HT FILE PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Apr 05, 2019 08:56 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

WhatsApp has over 230 million monthly active users in India.(REUTERS)

lok sabha election 2019

Updated on Apr 03, 2019 12:16 AM IST

ByVidhi Choudhary

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.

The Congress said in a statement that none of the pages taken down were officially backed by it or its verified volunteers.(REUTERS)

lok sabha election 2019

Updated on Apr 01, 2019 11:51 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

Facebook on Wednesday apologised for identifying Kashmir independent of India.(AFP)

india news

Published on Mar 28, 2019 12:21 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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

Former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps during an interview with Hindustan Times in New Delhi, on Tuesday.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

others

Updated on Apr 25, 2020 02:57 PM IST

HIndustan Times, New Delhi | ByRudraneil 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.

Michael Phelps during an interview with Hindustan Times at ITC Maurya Hotel, in New Delhi on March 26.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

others

Updated on Mar 27, 2019 07:30 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByRudraneil 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).

WhatsApp Inc. offers a cross-platform mobile messaging application that allows users to exchange messages. Image for representation.(Bloomberg file photo)

lok sabha election 2019

Updated on Mar 20, 2019 07:34 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | BySmriti 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.

A screengrab of a satirical political video on TikTok.

lok sabha election 2019

Updated on Mar 19, 2019 04:51 PM IST

New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

A parliamentary panel on information technology on Wednesday asked social media giant Facebook to ensure that its platform and those of its photo-sharing site Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp are not misused to create divisions, incite violence.(Reuters File Photo)

india news

Updated on Mar 07, 2019 07:01 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | BySmriti 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.

India has an estimated 30 million Twitter users but the corresponding number for Pakistan is not independently available. With 13.74 million conversations ( 77.4% of the total), India made up the bulk of these conversations.(Reuters/Picture for representation)

india news

Published on Feb 28, 2019 01:32 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

Colin Crowell, Twitter’s vice president for global public policy and philanthropy, said the 2019 elections ar critically important for the microblogging site.(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Feb 26, 2019 10:58 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

india news

Published on Feb 22, 2019 11:34 PM IST

New Delhi | ByKumar 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.

Twitter has also set up an “internal cross functional elections group” in its efforts to protect the integrity of elections in the country.(AP File Photo)

india news

Updated on Feb 22, 2019 02:35 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

Image for representation.(REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Feb 10, 2019 07:27 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | BySmriti 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.

Twitter Friday said it believes in impartiality and does not take any actions, such as blocking of accounts, based on political views.(REUTERS)

world news

Updated on Feb 08, 2019 11:44 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

Advertisements that reference political personalities, political parties and elections on social networking site Facebook in India will now carry disclaimers about who published and paid for the ad.(REUTERS)

india news

Updated on Feb 08, 2019 07:46 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with more than 200 million users.(REUTERS)

india news

Updated on Feb 07, 2019 02:58 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

budget

Updated on Feb 02, 2019 09:18 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

The need for a new legislation has been felt as the Information Technology Act, which provides for privacy and security of data in digital form, has its limitations.(Representative image)

india news

Published on Jan 05, 2019 07:16 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByRajeev 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?

‘In India, Sacred Games has created a level of awareness for Netflix that didn’t exist before.’(Photo courtesy: Netflix)

entertainment

Updated on Jan 06, 2019 11:52 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByVidhi 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.

Piyush Pandey, who has three decades of experience in advertising, will be chief creative officer, worldwide, in Ogilvy from January 1, 2019.(HT File Photo)

business

Updated on Dec 05, 2018 11:20 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

During his first visit to India, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said the country would be the next big growth frontier for Twitter.(Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

india news

Updated on Nov 15, 2018 08:57 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

A study done by the BBC World Service Group, titled ‘Beyond Fake News’, used multiple methods to understand the circulation of fake news in India.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

india news

Updated on Nov 12, 2018 08:23 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

WhatsApp has over 200 million users in India, its largest market.(AFP File Photo)

india news

Published on Oct 21, 2018 07:15 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi 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.

The Digital Empowerment Foundation survey titled “What’s up Rural India?” recorded responses from only 1018 rural users in 14 states.(Reuters File Photo)

india news

Updated on Oct 19, 2018 01:43 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByVidhi Choudhary

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Vidhi Choudhary

Vidhi covers business of media and entertainment, sports and pop culture for Hindustan Times.

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.

The data shows that so far the BJP has spent ₹25 crore in advertisements across Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.

In April 2017, Baahubali 2 smashed box office records to become India’s top grossing film in just six days.

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.

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

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.

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.

According to Facebook, the network associated with the Congress included 549 accounts and 138 pages, which reached 206,000 followers.

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.

Michael Phelps speaks on his preparations for the Olympics, his struggles with depression, and what he expects from the 2020 Tokyo Games

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Twitter vice-president Colin Crowell spoke about the meeting with the parliamentary committee, responded to allegations of a perceived political bias.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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