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Digital Marketing Influencer Legal Social Media

Social media influencers, freedom of speech and trademark disparagement

On 15 January, the Bombay High Court allowed a request by FMCG giant Marico Limited for an interim injunction against vlogger Abhijeet Bhansali, requiring him to take down a video in which he reviews Parachute Coconut Oil – which the company claims made disparaging remarks about their product. “Social Media influencers, whether their audience is […]

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Influencer Social Media Trends Vigo

Vigo superstar from Bengal goes missing. Controversy brings more users to the app.

Chinese app Vigo, a video social media portal viral in India’s hinterland, has come into headlines with one of its local stars allegedly going missing. Pratima Mondal, 21, known as Jasmine on Vigo, has 4 lakh followers on the app. The West Bengal native was reported missing by her husband earlier this month after she allegedly went […]

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Celebrity Endorsement Digital Marketing Influencer Social Media

How a smart brand owner used her celeb clients to build her brand of ‘juttis’

Shirin Mann Sangha, founder of Needledust, claims to be an accidental entrepreneur. After completing her masters in journalism from Cardiff University in the UK, she came back to India and took up a job as an investigative journalist in a start-up. “I wanted to be an investigative journalist. I love writing. I still write. I […]

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Influencer Social Media Trends

Rise of the “social media teacher”: the ups and downs of being ‘edu-famous’

Many of the issues arising from the increased use of digital technology in schools aren’t particularly new. For example, current calls to ban smartphones from schools often forget that this isn’t the first time that students have been distracted in class. Similarly, issues of cyberbullying and online cheating are certainly not novel behaviours. However, the […]

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Social Media

Can social media overuse lead to poor decision-making?

Is social media addictive? Really, truly addictive? Is it so compelling and rewarding for some excessive users that it affects behaviour and choices in “real” life, like substance abuse and gambling? This is the idea a Monash University researcher is helping develop internationally. Professor Antonio Verdejo-Garcia is from Monash’s Turner Institute For Brain and Mental […]

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Facebook Social Media Trends

India’s new privacy bill and how it may affect Social Media.

India’s proposed new privacy bill may require large social media platforms to offer an identify-verification option, a potentially precedent-setting effort to rein in the spread of “fake news”, two government sources told Reuters. The requirement would likely raise a host of technical and policy issues for companies including Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram units, […]

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Digital Marketing Social Media Trends

When brands do not leverage their ‘social’ right.

Social platforms and third-party apps seemingly rise and fall overnight, making it difficult for brands to adapt to the evolving landscape and develop targeted, platform-specific content. Consequently, brands often struggle to allocate their resources strategically and purposefully. Strategies that may have been successful in 2018 are already obsolete for 2019. The same will be said […]