#FactCheck: AI-Generated Video Falsely Shared as Footage of Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport

Introduction

The Australian Parliament has passed the world’s first legislation regarding a ban on social media for children under 16. This was done citing risks to the mental and physical well-being of children and the need to contain misogynistic influence on them. The debate surrounding the legislation is raging strong, as it is the first proposal of its kind and would set precedence for how other countries can assess their laws regarding children and social media platforms and their priorities. 

The Legislation

Currently trailing an age-verification system (such as biometrics or government identification), the legislation mandates a complete ban on underage children using social media, setting the age limit to 16 or above. Further, the law does not provide exemptions of any kind, be it for pre-existing accounts or parental consent. With federal elections approaching, the law seeks to address parental concerns regarding measures to protect their children from threats lurking on social media platforms. Every step in this regard is being observed with keen interest. 

The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, emphasised that the onus of taking responsible steps toward preventing access falls on the social media platforms, absolving parents and their children of the same. Social media platforms like TikTok, X, and Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram all come under the purview of this legislation.

CyberPeace Overview

The issue of a complete age-based ban raises a few concerns:

1. It is challenging to enforce digitally as children might find a way to circumnavigate such restrictions. An example would be the Cinderella Law, formally known as the Shutdown Law, which the Government of South Korea had implemented back in 2011 to reduce online gaming and promote healthy sleeping habits among children. The law mandated the prohibition of access to online gaming for children under the age of 16 between 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. However, a few drawbacks rendered it less effective over time. Children were able to use the login IDs of adults, switch to VPN, and even switch to offline gaming. In addition, parents also felt the government was infringing on the right to privacy and the restrictions were only for online PC games and did not extend to mobile phones. Consequently, the law lost relevance and was repealed in 2021.  
2. The concept of age verification inherently requires collecting more personal data and inadvertently opens up concerns regarding individual privacy. 
3. A ban is likely to reduce the pressure on tech and social media companies to develop and work on areas that would make their services a safe child-friendly environment. 

Conclusion

Social media platforms can opt for an approach that focuses on how to create a safe environment online for children as they continue to deliberate on restrictions. An example of an impactful-yet-balanced step towards the protection of children on social media while respecting privacy is the U.K.'s Age-Appropriate Design Code (UK AADC). It is the U.K.’s implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), prepared by the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office), the U.K. data protection regulator. It follows a safety-by-design approach for children. As we move towards a future that is predominantly online, we must continue to strive and create a safe space for children and address issues in innovative ways.

References

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/australia-proposes-ban-on-social-media-for-children-under-16-9657544/
2. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/should-children-be-barred-from-social-media/article68661342.ece
3. https://forumias.com/blog/debates-on-whether-children-should-be-banned-from-social-media/
4. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/why-banning-kids-from-social-media-wont-solve-the-youth-mental-health-crisis/articleshow/113328111.cms
5. https://iapp.org/news/a/childrens-privacy-laws-and-freedom-of-expression-lessons-from-the-uk-age-appropriate-design-code
6. https://www.techinasia.com/s-koreas-cinderella-law-finally-growing-up-teens-may-soon-be-able-to-play-online-after-midnight-again
7. https://wp.towson.edu/iajournal/2021/12/13/video-gaming-addiction-a-case-study-of-china-and-south-korea/
8. https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-passes-worlds-1st-total-social-media-ban-for-children

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Digitisation in Agriculture

The traditional way of doing agriculture has undergone massive digitization in recent years, whereby several agricultural processes have been linked to the Internet. This globally prevalent transformation, driven by smart technology, encompasses the use of sensors, IoT devices, and data analytics to optimize and automate labour-intensive farming practices. Smart farmers in the country and abroad now leverage real-time data to monitor soil conditions, weather patterns, and crop health, enabling precise resource management and improved yields. The integration of smart technology in agriculture not only enhances productivity but also promotes sustainable practices by reducing waste and conserving resources. As a result, the agricultural sector is becoming more efficient, resilient, and capable of meeting the growing global demand for food.

Digitisation of Food Supply Chains

There has also been an increase in the digitisation of food supply chains across the globe since it enables both suppliers and consumers to keep track of the stage of food processing from farm to table and ensures the authenticity of the food product. The latest generation of agricultural robots is being tested to minimise human intervention. It is thought that AI-run processes can mitigate labour shortage, improve warehousing and storage and make transportation more efficient by running continuous evaluations and adjusting the conditions real-time while increasing yield. The company Muddy Machines is currently trialling an autonomous asparagus-harvesting robot called Sprout that not only addresses labour shortages but also selectively harvests green asparagus, which traditionally requires careful picking. However, Chris Chavasse, co-founder of Muddy Machines, highlights that hackers and malicious actors could potentially hack into the robot's servers and prevent it from operating by driving it into a ditch or a hedge, thereby impending core crop activities like seeding and harvesting. Hacking agricultural pieces of machinery also implies damaging a farmer’s produce and in turn profitability for the season.

Case Study: Muddy Machines and Cybersecurity Risks

A cyber attack on digitised agricultural processes has a cascading impact on online food supply chains. Risks are non-exhaustive and spill over to poor protection of cargo in transit, increased manufacturing of counterfeit products, manipulation of data, poor warehousing facilities and product-specific fraud, amongst others. Additional impacts on suppliers are also seen, whereby suppliers have supplied the food products but fail to receive their payments. These cyber-threats may include malware(primarily ransomware) that accounts for 38% of attacks, Internet of Things (IoT) attacks that comprise 29%, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, SQL Injections, phishing attacks etc. 

Prominent Cyber Attacks and Their Impacts

Ransomware attacks are the most popular form of cyber threats to food supply chains and may include malicious contaminations, deliberate damage and destruction of tangible assets (like infrastructure) or intangible assets (like reputation and brand). In 2017, NotPetya malware disrupted the world’s largest logistics giant Maersk and destroyed all end-user devices in more than 60 countries. Interestingly, NotPetya was also linked to the malfunction of freezers connected to control systems. The attack led to these control systems being compromised, resulting in freezer failures and potential spoilage of food, highlighting the vulnerability of industrial control systems to cyber threats.

Further Case Studies

NotPetya also impacted Mondelez, the maker of Oreos but disrupting its email systems, file access and logistics for weeks. Mondelez’s insurance claim was also denied since NotPetya malware was described as a “war-like” action, falling outside the purview of the insurance coverage. In April 2021, over the Easter weekend, Bakker Logistiek, a logistics company based in the Netherlands that offers air-conditioned warehousing and food transportation for Dutch supermarkets, experienced a ransomware attack. This incident disrupted their supply chain for several days, resulting in empty shelves at Albert Heijn supermarkets, particularly for products such as packed and grated cheese. Despite the severity of the attack, the company successfully restored their operations within a week by utilizing backups. JBS, one of the world’s biggest meat processing companies, also had to pay $11 million in ransom via Bitcoin to resolve a cyber attack in the same year, whereby computer networks at JBS were hacked, temporarily shutting down their operations and endangering consumer data. The disruption threatened food supplies and risked higher food prices for consumers. Additional cascading impacts also include low food security and hindrances in processing payments at retail stores. 

Credible Threat Agents and Their Targets

Any cyber-attack is usually carried out by credible threat agents that can be classified as either internal or external threat agents. Internal threat agents may include contractors, visitors to business sites, former/current employees, and individuals who work for suppliers. External threat agents may include activists, cyber-criminals, terror cells etc. These threat agents target large organisations owing to their larger ransom-paying capacity, but may also target small companies due to their vulnerability and low experience, especially when such companies are migrating from analogous methods to digitised processes.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns that the food and agricultural systems are most vulnerable to cyber-security threats during critical planting and harvesting seasons. It noted an increase in cyber-attacks against six agricultural co-operatives in 2021, with ancillary core functions such as food supply and distribution being impacted. Resultantly, cyber-attacks may lead to a mass shortage of food not only meant for human consumption but also for animals.

Policy Recommendations

To safeguard against digital food supply chains, Food defence emerges as one of the top countermeasures to prevent and mitigate the effects of intentional incidents and threats to the food chain. While earlier, food defence vulnerability assessments focused on product adulteration and food fraud, including vulnerability assessments of agriculture technology now be more relevant.  

Food supply organisations must prioritise regular backups of data using air-gapped and password-protected offline copies, and ensure critical data copies are not modifiable or deletable from the main system.  For this, blockchain-based food supply chain solutions may be deployed, which are not only resilient to hacking, but also allow suppliers and even consumers to track produce. Companies like Ripe.io, Walmart Global Tech, Nestle and Wholechain deploy blockchain for food supply management since it provides overall process transparency, improves trust issues in the transactions, enables traceable and tamper-resistant records and allows accessibility and visibility of data provenance. Extensive recovery plans with multiple copies of essential data and servers in secure, physically separated locations, such as hard drives, storage devices, cloud or distributed ledgers should be adopted in addition to deploying operations plans for critical functions in case of system outages. For core processes which are not labour-intensive,  including manual operation methods may be used to reduce digital dependence. Network segmentation, updates or patches for operating systems, software, and firmware are additional steps which can be taken to secure smart agricultural technologies. 

References

1. Muddy Machines website, Accessed 26 July 2024.  https://www.muddymachines.com/ 
2. “Meat giant JBS pays $11m in ransom to resolve cyber-attack”, BBC, 10 June 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57423008 
3. Marshall, Claire & Prior, Malcolm, “Cyber security: Global food supply chain at risk from malicious hackers.”, BBC, 20 May 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61336659 
4. “Ransomware Attacks on Agricultural Cooperatives Potentially Timed to Critical Seasons.”, Private Industry Notification, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 20 April  https://www.ic3.gov/Media/News/2022/220420-2.pdf. 
5. Manning, Louise & Kowalska, Aleksandra. (2023). “The threat of ransomware in the food supply chain: a challenge for food defence”, Trends in Organized Crime. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-023-09516-y 
6. “NotPetya: the cyberattack that shook the world”, Economic Times, 5 March 2022. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/newsletters/ettech-unwrapped/notpetya-the-cyberattack-that-shook-the-world/articleshow/89997076.cms?from=mdr 
7. Abrams, Lawrence, “Dutch supermarkets run out of cheese after ransomware attack.”, Bleeping Computer, 12 April 2021. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/dutch-supermarkets-run-out-of-cheese-after-ransomware-attack/ 
8. Pandey, Shipra; Gunasekaran, Angappa; Kumar Singh, Rajesh & Kaushik, Anjali, “Cyber security risks in globalised supply chains: conceptual framework”, Journal of Global Operations and Strategic Sourcing, January 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shipra-Pandey/publication/338668641_Cyber_security_risks_in_globalized_supply_chains_conceptual_framework/links/5e2678ae92851c89c9b5ac66/Cyber-security-risks-in-globalized-supply-chains-conceptual-framework.pdf 
9. Daley, Sam, “Blockchain for Food: 10 examples to know”, Builin, 22 March 2023 https://builtin.com/blockchain/food-safety-supply-chain 

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Introduction
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In May 2025, at Mumbai’s first-ever World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), PM Narendra Modi marked a turning point: the rise of what he called India's Orange Economy. Here lies a new path to growth - one built less on factories, more on invention, artistry, and spreading thought globally. While aiming for massive economic scale, India finds its creative industries movies, sound, games, cartoons, clothing design, books, online media stepping forward. 

First appearing in a 2013 guide from the Inter-American Development Bank, the phrase 'orange economy' emerged through work by Felipe Buitrago Restrepo and Iván Duque Márquez, suggesting past neglect in defining how culture connects with economic activity. Because orange stands for imagination and heritage in many societies, it became the label for this particular sector of economic life..

According to UNESCO’s 2022 Global Report Reshaping Policies for Creativity, the cultural and creative sectors account for 3.1% of world GDP and employ 6.2% of the global workforce – more than the total number of people employed in car manufacturing in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Meanwhile, UNCTAD's 2024 Creative Economy Outlook shows cross-border trade in creative services hit $1.4 trillion in 2022, up nearly a third from five years ago, demonstrating how imagination is remaking modern commerce.

In his book The Creative Economy, economist John Howkins states that the creative economy is essentially about the relationship between creativity and economics, where ideas themselves are products, and imagination becomes a form of capital.

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India’s Slice of Orange 

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The Scale of Opportunity
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Despite its potential, India’s role in the global creative economy remains largely untapped. According to the FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report, the country’s media and entertainment sector ranks among the world’s most rapidly expanding, fueled by a youthful demographic that is increasingly online and earning more. Boasting over 600 million people using the internet, it hosts a vibrant network of creators - musicians in Guwahati, podcasters in Kochi, game developers in Bengaluru, filmmakers in Punjab - who together form a rich pool of talent unlike any other.

Now comes a shift at the WAVES Summit, where PM Modi framed content, creativity, and culture as core to an emerging economy. Not just products but ideas take center stage here, he suggested, during what he described as the ideal time to build from India for global impact. While earlier efforts pushed factory output under Make in India, this approach turned toward thinking work - where stories, visual forms, and online expression shape progress. Thought becomes product; imagination fuels industry.

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Creative Industries Leading Change
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What many people don’t know is that India makes more films than any other country. The films made in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada are also widely circulated outside India, not just the output of Mumbai. Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime carry these works, reaching far beyond local audiences. Furthermore, India’s gaming industry is nascent but growing rapidly, and is attracting increasing attention from policy makers. Until recently, studios around the world have not relied on Indian teams for animation and visual effects. Now, local creators are slowly building their own game franchises. Momentum is shifting - original ideas once rare now appear more often across the country. Deep within India’s craft traditions handwoven textiles, carved block patterns, intricate metallic threadwork lies a quiet fusion of legacy and modern expression. Viewed anew through the framework of creative enterprise, such practices reveal dual value: access to global markets alongside sustenance for village-based makers. Rather than mere relics, they function as living systems where art meets income. Changes in perception make them economic opportunities, rather than local crafts. Every stitch, every weave, is not just technique but the weight of continuity in the face of change. And today, streaming platforms allow independent musicians in India to connect directly to listeners worldwide.

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The Three T’s: Technology Talent Tolerance
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Richard Florida, an economist, in his work The Rise of the Creative Class once proposed a model where city progress ties closely to innovation, skilled individuals, and openness. His idea - crafted originally for U.S. urban areas fits well when viewing India today. Growth now depends less on old industries, more on environments that attract capable minds through flexibility. Regions thrive not just by building tech hubs but by welcoming diverse lifestyles. One factor feeds another: talent flows where freedom exists, ideas grow where tools are available. A place gains momentum only if it supports all three at once.

Technology

A tool opens doors. Low-cost internet, budget phones, together with government-backed digital expansion, made making content possible for nearly anyone. The focus should be on accessibility and last mile delivery. 

Talent

Home to the youngest population on Earth, it sees countless imaginative minds emerge yearly from schools that now encourage original thinking. Still, despite rising worldwide interest in what these individuals produce, many cannot cover basic needs - a gap highlighted by UNESCO’s 2022 findings. But this contradiction lacks for systems that ensure fair pay, protect ideas, and offer stability beyond fleeting projects.

Tolerance

Openness to difference, trial, and unusual thinking shapes the trickier part of the equation. The wide mix of tongues, beliefs, and cultural expressions in India adds real value. Still, fostering innovation demands systems willing to adapt with rules safeguarding free expression, fair access for women in arts sectors, smoother paths for excluded groups.

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Challenges on the Path to “Create in India”
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India has millions of creators who influence culture but struggle to make a regular income from their work. Platforms take the lion’s share of profits, but those creating content, especially outside the big cities, often don’t have legal help, fair contracts or links with brands.

Another issue is Intellectual Property Literacy, IP rules such as copyright, trademark and patent systems empower the creative economy. Still, uneven understanding and spotty enforcement across India put many creators at risk of unfair use. Surprisingly, UNESCO’s 2022 assessment points to missing global standards for measuring creative sectors. Because of this gap, India faces challenges in shaping precise policy moves. Without detailed cultural satellite accounts, tracking progress remains uneven. Sector-specific figures would help fill these blind spots. Otherwise, decisions rely on incomplete information.Lastly, across the world, female professionals in artistic fields hold fewer top roles while earning less than men - a gap clearly seen in India too. To shape a fairer cultural sector, intentional strategies must elevate women, indigenous makers, and creators with disabilities.

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Conclusion
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In India, where young energy meets tradition through digital tools. Stories once shared locally now move across borders, carried by platforms that turn art into income. Because of this shift, music and fashion gain reach but only if creators can protect their work. Without fair pay or legal backing, even brilliant ideas fade quietly. Support systems matter, not just ambition. Recognition from society shapes whether fresh voices endure. In 2022, UNESCO’s report showed that although more people want to do creative work, those who create it still find it hard to make a living. New ideas offer a way forward, not to copy what exists, culture is then voice and value all at once.

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References
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1. https://sprf.in/from-make-in-india-to-create-in-india-charting-indias-orange-economy-frontier/ 
2. https://www.unesco.org/reports/reshaping-creativity/2022/en 
3. https://iasscore.in/current-affairs/indias-orange-economy 
4. https://indiasworld.in/the-dawn-of-indias-orange-economy/ 
5. Marta-Christina Suciu, "The Creative Economy" (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest)
6. John Howkins, The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas (2001)
7. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class (2002)
8. UNCTAD, Creative Economy Outlook 2024
9. SPRF, "From Make in India to Create in India" (December 2025)
10. IDB, The Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity (2013)

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