#Factcheck-False Claims of Houthi Attack on Israel’s Ashkelon Power Plant
Executive Summary:
A post on X (formerly Twitter) has gained widespread attention, featuring an image inaccurately asserting that Houthi rebels attacked a power plant in Ashkelon, Israel. This misleading content has circulated widely amid escalating geopolitical tensions. However, investigation shows that the footage actually originates from a prior incident in Saudi Arabia. This situation underscores the significant dangers posed by misinformation during conflicts and highlights the importance of verifying sources before sharing information.
Claims:
The viral video claims to show Houthi rebels attacking Israel's Ashkelon power plant as part of recent escalations in the Middle East conflict.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the viral posts, we conducted a Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video. The search reveals that the video circulating online does not refer to an attack on the Ashkelon power plant in Israel. Instead, it depicts a 2022 drone strike on a Saudi Aramco facility in Abqaiq. There are no credible reports of Houthi rebels targeting Ashkelon, as their activities are largely confined to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
This incident highlights the risks associated with misinformation during sensitive geopolitical events. Before sharing viral posts, take a brief moment to verify the facts. Misinformation spreads quickly and it’s far better to rely on trusted fact-checking sources.
Conclusion:
The assertion that Houthi rebels targeted the Ashkelon power plant in Israel is incorrect. The viral video in question has been misrepresented and actually shows a 2022 incident in Saudi Arabia. This underscores the importance of being cautious when sharing unverified media. Before sharing viral posts, take a moment to verify the facts. Misinformation spreads quickly, and it is far better to rely on trusted fact-checking sources.
- Claim: The video shows massive fire at Israel's Ashkelon power plant
- Claimed On:Instagram and X (Formerly Known As Twitter)
- Fact Check: False and Misleading
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Introduction
In the interconnected world of social networking and the digital landscape, social media users have faced some issues like hacking. Hence there is a necessity to protect your personal information and data from scammers or hackers. In case your email or social media account gets hacked, there are mechanisms or steps you can utilise to recover your email or social media account. It is important to protect your email or social media accounts in order to protect your personal information and data on your account. It is always advisable to keep strong passwords to protect your account and enable two-factor authentication as an extra layer of protection. Hackers or bad actors can take control of your account, they can even change the linked mail ID or Mobile numbers to take full access to your account.
Recent Incident
Recently, a US man's Facebook account was deleted or disabled by Facebook. He has sued Facebook and initiated a legal battle. He has contended that there was no violation of any terms and policy of the platform, and his account was disabled. In the first instance, he approached the platform. However, the platform neglected his issue then he filed a suit, where the court ordered Facebook's parent company, Meta, to pay $50,000 compensation, citing ignorance of the tech company.
Social media account recovery using the ‘Help’ Section
If your Facebook account has been disabled, when you log in to your account, you will see a text saying that your account is disabled. If you think that your account is disabled by mistake, in such a scenario, you can make a request to Facebook to ‘review’ its decision using the help centre section of the platform. To recover your social media account, you can go to the “Help” section of the platform where you can fix a login problem and also report any suspicious activity you have faced in your account.
Best practices to stay protected
- Strong password: Use strong and unique passwords for your email and all social media accounts.
- Privacy settings: You can utilise the privacy settings of the social media platform, where you can set privacy as to who can see your posts and who can see your contact information, and you can also keep your social media account private. You might have noticed a few accounts on which the user's name is unusual and isn’t one which you recognise. The account has few or no friends, posts, or visible account activity.
- Avoid adding unknown users or strangers to your social networking accounts: Unknown users might be scammers who can steal your personal information from your social media profiles, and such bad actors can misuse that information to hack into your social media account.
- Report spam accounts or posts: If you encounter any spam post, spam account or inappropriate content, you can report such profile or post to the platform using the reporting centre. The platform will review the report and if it goes against the community guidelines or policy of the platform. Hence, recognise and report spam, inappropriate, and abusive content.
- Be cautious of phishing scams: As a user, we encounter phishing emails or links, and phishing attacks can take place on social media as well. Hence, it is important that do not open any suspicious emails or links. On social media, ‘Quiz posts’ or ‘advertisement links’ may also contain phishing links, hence, do not open or click on such unauthenticated or suspicious links.
Conclusion
We all use social media for connecting with people, sharing thoughts, and lots of other activities. For marketing or business, we use social media pages. Social media offers a convenient way to connect with a larger community. We also share our personal information on the platform. It becomes important to protect your personal information, your email and all your social media accounts from hackers or bad actors. Follow the best practices to stay safe, such as using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, etc. Hence contributing to keeping your social media accounts safe and secure.
References:
- https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/07/11/facebook-wrongfully-deleted-his-account-he-sued-the-company-and-won
- https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recover-your-hacked-email-or-social-media-account
Introduction
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has unanimously adopted the first global resolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI), encouraging countries to take into consideration human rights, keeping personal data safe, and further monitoring the threats associated with AI. This non-binding resolution proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by China and over 120 other nations advocates the strengthening of privacy policies. This step is crucial for governments across the world to shape how AI grows because of the dangers it carries that could undermine the protection, promotion, and right to human dignity and fundamental freedoms. The resolution emphasizes the importance of respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the life cycle of AI systems, highlighting the benefits of digital transformation and safe AI systems.
Key highlights
● This is indeed a landmark move by the UNGA, which adopted the first global resolution on AI. This resolution encourages member countries to safeguard human rights, protect personal data, and monitor AI for risks.
● Global leaders have shown their consensus for safe, secure, trustworthy AI systems that advance sustainable development and respect fundamental freedom.
● Resolution is the latest in a series of initiatives by governments around the world to shape AI. Therefore, AI will have to be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, Safety and Security, human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the life cycle of AI systems.
● UN resolution encourages global cooperation, warns against improper AI use, and emphasizes the issues of human rights.
● The resolution aims to protect from potential harm and ensure that everyone can enjoy its benefits. The United States has worked with over 120 countries at the United Nations, including Russia, China, and Cuba, to negotiate the text of the resolution adopted.
Brief Analysis
AI has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with chatbots such as the Chat GPT taking the world by storm. AI has been steadily attempting to replicate human-like thinking and solve problems. Furthermore, machine learning, a key aspect of AI, involves learning from experience and identifying patterns to solve problems autonomously. The contemporary emergence of AI has, however, raised questions about its ethical implications, potential negative impact on society, and whether it is too late to control it.
While AI is capable of solving problems quickly and performing various tasks with ease, it also has its own set of problems. As AI continues to grow, global leaders have called for regulations to prevent significant harm due to the unregulated AI landscape to the world and encourage the use of trustworthy AI. The European Union (EU) has come up with an AI act called the “European AI Act”. Recently, a Senate bill called “The AI Consent Bill” was introduced in the US. Similarly, India is also proactively working towards setting the stage for a more regulated Al landscape by fostering dialogues and taking significant measures. Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory on AI, which requires explicit permission to deploy under-testing or unreliable AI models related to India's Internet. The following advisory also indicates measures advocating to combat deepfakes or misinformation.
AI has thus become a powerful tool that has raised concerns about its ethical implications and the potential negative influence on society. Governments worldwide are taking action to regulate AI and ensure that it remains safe and effective. Now, the groundbreaking move of the UNGA, which adopted the global resolution on AI, with the support of all 193 U.N. member nations, shows the true potential of efforts by countries to regulate AI and promote safe and responsible use globally.
New AI tools have emerged in the public sphere, which may threaten humanity in an unexpected direction. AI is able to learn by itself through machine learning to improve itself, and developers often are surprised by the emergent abilities and qualities of these tools. The ability to manipulate and generate language, whether with words, images, or sounds, is the most important aspect of the current phase of the ongoing AI Revolution. In the future, AI can have several implications. Hence, it is high time to regulate AI and promote the safe, secure and responsible use of it.
Conclusion
The UNGA has approved its global resolution on AI, marking significant progress towards creating global standards for the responsible development and employment of AI. The resolution underscores the critical need to protect human rights, safeguard personal data, and closely monitor AI technologies for potential hazards. It calls for more robust privacy regulations and recognises the dangers associated with improper AI systems. This profound resolution reflects a unified stance among UN member countries on overseeing AI to prevent possible negative effects and promote safe, secure and trustworthy AI.
References
The recent Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, that came into force in August, has been one of the most widely anticipated regulations in the digital entertainment industry. Among provisions such as promoting esports and licensing of online gaming, the legislation notably introduces a blanket ban on real-money gaming (RMG). The rationale behind this was to reduce its addictive effects, protect minors, and limit the circulation of black-money. However, in reality, the Act has spawned apprehension about the legislative process, regulatory redundancy, and unintended consequences that can shift users and revenue to offshore operators.
From Debate to Prohibition: How the Act was Passed
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act was passed as a central law, providing the earlier fragmented state laws on online betting and gambling with an overarching framework. Proponents argue that, among other provisions, some kind of unified national framework was needed to deal with the scale of online betting due to its detrimental impact on young users. The current Act is a direct transition to criminalisation rather than the swings of self-regulation and partial restrictions used during the previous decade of incremental experiments in regulation. Stakeholders in the industry believe that this type of sudden, blanket action creates uncertainty and erodes confidence in the system in the long run. Further, critics have pointed out that the Bill was passed without adequate Parliamentary deliberation. A question has been raised about whether procedural safeguards were upheld.
Prohibition of Online RMG
Within the Indian context, a distinction has long been drawn between games of skill and games of chance, with the latter, like a lottery or a casino, being severely prohibited under state laws, whereas the former, like rummy or fantasy sports, have generally been allowed after being recognized as skill-based by court authorities. The Online Gaming Act of 2025 abolishes this distinction on the internet, thus banning all RMG actions that include cash transactions, regardless of skill or chance. The act also criminalises the advertising, facilitation, and hosting of such sites, thereby penalizing offshore operators with an Indian customer focus, and subjecting their payment gateways, app stores, and advertisers under its jurisdiction to penalties.
The Problem of Overlap
One potential issue that the Act presents is its overlap with the existing laws. The IT Rules 2023 mandate intermediaries in the gaming sector to appoint compliance officers, submit monthly reports, and undergo due diligence. The new Act introduces a three-level classification of games, whereas the advisories of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) under the Consumer Protection Act treat online betting as an unfair trade practice.
This multiplicity of regulations builds a maze where different Ministries and state governments have overlapping jurisdiction. Policy experts caution that such an overlap can create enforcement challenges, punish players who act within the law, and leave offshore malefactors undetected.
Unintended Consequences: Driving Users Offshore
Outright prohibition will hardly ever remove demand; it will only push it out. Offshore sites have taken advantage of the situation as Indian operators like Dream11 shut down their money games after the ban. It has already been reported that there is aggressive advertising by foreign betting companies that are not registered in India, most of which have backend infrastructure that cannot be regulated by the Act (Storyboard18).
This diversion of users to unregulated markets has two main risks. First, Indian players are deprived of the consumer protection offered to them in local regulation, and their data can be sent to suspicious foreign organizations. Second, the government loses control over the money flow that can be transferred via informal channels or cryptocurrencies or other obscure systems. Industry analysts are alerting that such developments may only worsen the issue of black-money instead of solving it (IGamingBusiness).
Advertising, Age Gating, and Digital Rights
The Act has also strengthened advertisement regulations, aligning with advisories issued by the Advertising Standards Council of India, which prohibits the targeting of minors. However, critics believe that the application remains inadequately enforced, and children can with comparative ease access unregulated overseas applications. In the absence of complementary digital literacy programs and strong parental controls, these limitations can be effectively superficial instead of real.
Privacy advocates also warn that frequent prompts, vague messages, or invasive surveillance can weaken the digital rights of users instead of strengthening them. Overregulation has also been found to create banner blindness in global contexts where users ignore warnings without first clearly understanding them.
Enforcement Challenges
The Act puts a lot of responsibilities on many stakeholders, including the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Platforms like Google Play and Apple App Store are expected to verify government-approved lists of compliant gaming apps and remove non-compliant or banned ones, as directed by the MIB and the RBI. Although this pressure may motivate intermediaries to collaborate, it may also have a risk of overreach when it is applied unequally or in a political way.
According to the experts, the solution should be underpinned by technology itself. Artificial intelligence can be used to identify illegal advertisements, track illegal gaming in children, and trace payment streams. At the same time, the regulators should be able to issue final lists of either compliant or non-compliant applications to advise the consumers and intermediaries alike. Without such practical provisions, enforcement risks remaining patchy.
Online Gaming Rules
On 1 October 2025, the government issued a draft of the Online Gaming Rules in accordance with the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act. The regulations focus on the creation of the compliance frameworks, define the classification of the allowed gaming activities, and prescribe grievance-redressal mechanisms aiming to promote the protection of the players and procedural transparency. However, the draft does not revisit or soften the existing blanket prohibition on real-money gaming (RMG) and, hence, the questions about the effectiveness of enforcement and regulatory clarity remain open (Times of India, 2025).
Protecting Consumers Without Stifling Innovation
The ban highlights a larger conflict, i.e., the protection of the vulnerable users without stifling an industry that has traditionally contributed to innovation, jobs, and the collection of tax revenue. Online gaming has significantly added to the GST collections, and the sudden shakeup brings fiscal concerns (Reuters).
Several legal objections to the Act have already been brought, asking whether the Act is constitutional, especially as to whether the restrictions are proportional to the right to trade. The outcome of such cases will define the future trajectory of the digital economy of India (Reuters).
Way Forward
Instead of outright prohibition, a more balanced approach that incorporates regulation and consumer protection is suggested by the experts. Key measures could include:
- A definite difference between games of skill and games of chance, with proportionate regulation.
- Age confirmation and campaign against online illiteracy to protect the underage population.
- Enhanced advertising and payments compliance requirements and enforceable non-compliance penalty.
- Coordinated oversight among different ministries to prevent duplication and regulatory struggle.
- Leveraging AI and fintech to track illegal financial activities (black money flows) and developing innovation.
Conclusion
The Online Gaming Act 2025 addresses social issues, such as addiction, monetary risk, and child safety, that require governance interventions. However, the path it follows to this end, that of total prohibition, is more likely to spawn a new set of issues instead of providing solutions because it will send consumers to offshore sites, undermine consumer rights, and slow innovation.
For India, the real challenge is not whether to prohibit online money gaming but how to create a balanced, transparent, and enforceable framework that protects users while fostering a responsible gaming ecosystem. India can reduce the adverse consequences of online betting without keeping the industry in the shadows with better coordination, reasonable use of technology, and balanced protection.
References:
- India's Dream11, top gaming apps halt money-based games after ban
- India online gambling ban could drive punters to black market
- Offshore betting firms with backend ops in India not covered by online gaming law
- The Great Gamble: India’s Online Gaming Ban, The GST Battle, And What Lies Ahead.
- Game Over for Online Money Games? An Analysis of the Online Gaming Act 2025
- Government gambles heavily on prohibiting online money gaming
- Online gaming regulation: New rules to take effect from October 1; government stresses consultative approach with industry
