The Great Indian Gaming Paradox: Millions of Players, Very Few Creators
Introduction
One of the biggest gaming populations in the world today is found in India. Every day, hundreds of millions of young Indians engage with streaming services, immersive digital content, mobile games and e-sports ecosystems. Yet, despite this massive scale of participation, India remains largely absent from the global conversation on original gaming intellectual property. Although the nation produces very few globally significant gaming worlds of its own, it consumes games on an astonishing scale. This paradox highlights a more serious structural issue with the gaming discourse in India. Our national conversation around gaming often begins and ends with regulation i.e., online betting, taxation, fantasy gaming legality, addiction and compliance. Although these worries are valid they have inadvertently obscured a much more crucial query: is India creating a gaming industry or is it just regulating a gaming market? Various subject-matter experts have expressed their views on this issue, like Shailendra Vikram Singh who is of the opinion,
“I believe India’s gaming story presents a unique paradox. While we are one of the world’s largest gaming markets, we have yet to fully realize gaming’s potential as a strategic pillar of the AVGC vision. Much of the conversation remains focused on regulation and consumption, whereas the larger opportunity lies in creation, innovation, and global competitiveness.
In my view, gaming should be recognized as a strategic creative and digital industry. It has the potential to generate high-value employment, foster indigenous intellectual property, and strengthen capabilities in design, storytelling, animation, immersive technologies, and emerging digital skills. Beyond its economic value, gaming can also serve as a powerful platform for education, skilling, and public engagement.
I also see gaming as an important medium for bringing India’s rich cultural heritage, historical narratives, and diverse traditions to global audiences through interactive storytelling. As digital experiences increasingly shape how younger generations learn, engage, and understand the world, culturally rooted content can become a source of both creative expression and national soft power.
At the same time, sustainable growth must be built on trust. Strong safeguards for cybersecurity, child protection, user safety, responsible gaming, and data governance are essential to creating a resilient and trusted ecosystem.
To realize the full promise of the AVGC vision, I believe India must aspire to be more than a large gaming market. A nation of gamers must ultimately become a nation of game creators.”
The Misplaced Focus of Regulating Bodies
A country with one of the world’s oldest storytelling civilizations should not remain from the world’s most influential storytelling medium. Examining how other nations viewed gaming as a strategic cultural enterprise highlights the disparity even further. Japan turned gaming into a tool of soft power by exporting global icons like Mario, Pokémon and Zelda. Along with K-pop and digital culture, South Korea incorporated gaming into its larger cultural export sector. With businesses like Tencent and games like Genshin Impact and Black Myth: Wukong, China is now aggressively marketing gaming as a geopolitical and technological impact ecosystem.
Through The Witcher, Poland even showed how local folklore based storytelling may achieve cultural relevance on a worldwide scale. In contrast, India contributes very little to the global gaming imagination despite having one of the strongest civilisational storytelling traditions in human history, including the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Buddhist Narratives, tribal folklore, Indic mythology and regional legends.
Artificial Intelligence and Lore of Lost Opportunities
The arrival of artificial intelligence now changes this equation dramatically. AI is lowering the barriers to creativity in ways previously unimaginable. For character design, procedural storytelling, localisation, environment creation, NPC interactions, voice synthesis and animation pipelines, independent producers and small studios can now use generative AI. Agile creative ecosystems are increasingly able to accomplish what formerly required enormous infrastructure and production teams. This offers India a once-in-a-lifetime chance to overcome conventional developmental barriers in the gaming sector. India may become a global center for AI-assisted storytelling, culturally grounded gaming storylines and scalable independent game production instead of competing just through capital-intensive AAA ecosystems.
The AVGC Promotion Task Force for India’s Digital future explicitly highlighted the significance of intellectual property development, academic integration, skilling and incubation systems. However, India still views gaming more as a compliance industry than as a significant creative economy. Economists use revenue forecasts to discuss gaming. Taxation frameworks are used by policymakers to discuss it. However, narrative ownership, digital culture, creative sovereignty and gaming as a long-term civilisational export are not sufficiently discussed.
Playing Everyone Else’s Game
The actual danger does not lie in the fact India won’t grow into a sizable gaming industry. The change has already taken place. The bigger risk is that, in a global market that is becoming more and more controlled by foreign narratives, foreign engines and foreign platforms, India may permanently remain a consumer ecosystem. Processors and graphic engines won’t be the only factors influencing gaming in the future, cultures that can emotionally engage worlds will also play a significant role. India possesses the depth of civilisation, creative heritage, technical prowess and population size necessary to develop into such a creator economy. It does not, however, have a consistent institutional focus on supporting studios, storytellers, animators and original intellectual property ecosystems.
References
- AVGC Promotion Task Force Report, Government of India
- KPMG India Media & Entertainment Reports
- EY-FICCI Media & Entertainment Industry Reports
- Newzoo Global Games Market Reports
- Lumikai “State of India Gaming” Reports
- UNESCO Reports on Cultural & Creative Industries
- World Economic Forum reports on AI and Creative Economies
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Starting on 16th February 2025, Google changed its advertisement platform program policy. It will permit advertisers to employ device fingerprinting techniques for user tracking. Organizations that use their advertising services are now permitted to use fingerprinting techniques for tracking their users' data. Originally announced on 18th December 2024, this rule change has sparked yet another debate regarding privacy and profits.
The Issue
Fingerprinting is a technique that allows for the collection of information about a user’s device and browser details, ultimately enabling the creation of a profile of the user. Not only used for or limited to targeting advertisements, data procured in such a manner can be used by private entities and even government organizations to identify individuals who access their services. If information on customization options, such as language settings and a user’s screen size, is collected, it becomes easier to identify an individual when combined with data points like browser type, time zone, battery status, and even IP address.
What makes this technique contentious at the moment is the lack of awareness regarding the information being collected from the user and the inability to opt out once permissions are granted.
This is unlike Google’s standard system of data collection through permission requests, such as accepting website cookies—small text files sent to the browser when a user visits a particular website. While contextual and first-party cookies limit data collection to enhance user experience, third-party cookies enable the display of irrelevant advertisements while users browse different platforms. Due to this functionality, companies can engage in targeted advertising.
This issue has been addressed in laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU) and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 (India), which mandate strict rules and regulations regarding advertising, data collection, and consent, among other things. One of the major requirements in both laws is obtaining clear, unambiguous consent. This also includes the option to opt out of previously granted permissions for cookies.
However, in the case of fingerprinting, the mechanism of data collection relies on signals that users cannot easily erase. While clearing all data from the browser or refusing cookies might seem like appropriate steps to take, they do not prevent tracking through fingerprinting, as users can still be identified using system details that a website has already collected. This applies to all IoT products as well. People usually do not frequently change the devices they use, and once a system is identified, there are no available options to stop tracking, as fingerprinting relies on device characteristics rather than data-collecting text files that could otherwise be blocked.
Google’s Changing Stance
According to Statista, Google’s revenue is largely made up of the advertisement services it provides (amounting to 264.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2024). Any change in its advertisement program policies draws significant attention due to its economic impact.
In 2019, Google claimed in a blog post that fingerprinting was a technique that “subverts user choice and is wrong.” It is in this context that the recent policy shift comes as a surprise. In response, the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), the UK’s data privacy watchdog, has stated that this change is irresponsible. Google, however, is eager to have further discussions with the ICO regarding the policy change.
Conclusion
The debate regarding privacy in targeted advertising has been ongoing for quite some time. Concerns about digital data collection and storage have led to new and evolving laws that mandate strict fines for non-compliance.
Google’s shift in policy raises pressing concerns about user privacy and transparency. Fingerprinting, unlike cookies, offers no opt-out mechanism, leaving users vulnerable to continuous tracking without consent. This move contradicts Google’s previous stance and challenges global regulations like the GDPR and DPDP Act, which emphasize clear user consent.
With regulators like the ICO expressing disapproval, the debate between corporate profits and individual privacy intensifies. As digital footprints become harder to erase, users, lawmakers, and watchdogs must scrutinize such changes to ensure that innovation does not come at the cost of fundamental privacy rights
References
- https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/profit-over-privacy-google-gives-advertisers-more-personal-info-in-major-fingerprinting-u-turn
- https://www.ccn.com/news/technology/googles-new-fingerprinting-policy-sparks-privacy-backlash-as-ads-become-harder-to-avoid/
- https://www.emarketer.com/content/google-pivot-digital-fingerprinting-enable-better-cross-device-measurement
- https://www.lewissilkin.com/insights/2025/01/16/google-adopts-new-stance-on-device-fingerprinting-102ju7b
- https://www.lewissilkin.com/insights/2025/01/16/ico-consults-on-storage-and-access-cookies-guidance-102ju62
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm21g0052dno
- https://www.techradar.com/features/browser-fingerprinting-explained
- https://fingerprint.com/blog/canvas-fingerprinting/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/266206/googles-annual-global-revenue/#:~:text=In%20the%20most%20recently%20reported,billion%20U.S.%20dollars%20in%202024
Executive Summary
A video is being widely shared on social media and linked to protests that allegedly took place in Lucknow after the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Users claim that police in the capital of Uttar Pradesh baton-charged people who were protesting against the United States and Israel. The video is being widely circulated across social media platforms with this claim. However, research by CyberPeace found the claim to be false. Our verification revealed that the video is not from Lucknow but from Bareilly, and it is related to an incident that took place on September 26, 2025, when Uttar Pradesh Police baton-charged protesters during a rally held in support of the “I Love Mohammad” campaign.
Claim Post:
On March 3, 2026, an X (formerly Twitter) user shared the viral video claiming that the Uttar Pradesh Police took action against people blocking roads in Lucknow and creating unrest in support of Ali Khamenei.
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. During the search, we found a similar video posted on Instagram on September 26, 2025, indicating that the footage predates the current claim.
Further research led us to the same video on the website of Aaj Tak, where it was published on September 26, 2025.
According to the report, protests erupted in Bareilly after Friday prayers over a controversy related to “I Love Mohammad” posters. Hundreds of people took to the streets carrying banners and posters. The report further stated that protesters, responding to a call by cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza, attempted to break police barricades and move forward. Police initially tried to persuade the crowd to disperse, but when the situation escalated and the crowd refused to back down, officers resorted to baton-charging to control the situation. The incident reportedly led to tension in the area.
Conclusion:
Our research found that the viral video being shared as police action on protesters in Lucknow after the alleged killing of Ali Khamenei is misleading. The footage is actually from Bareilly and shows a police baton-charge during a protest rally held on September 26, 2025 in support of the “I Love Mohammad” campaign.
Introduction
The Sexual Harassment of minors in cyberspace has become a matter of grave concern that needs to be addressed. Sextortion is the practice of extorting individuals into sharing explicit and sexual content under the threat of exposure. This grim activity has evolved into a pervasive issue on several social media platforms, particularly Instagram. To combat this illicit act, big corporate giants such as Meta have deployed a comprehensive ‘nudity protection’ feature, leveraging the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms to ascertain and address the rapid distribution of unsolicited explicit content.
The Meta Initiative presented a multifaceted approach to improve user safety, especially for young people online, who are more vulnerable to predatory behavior.
The Salient Feature
Instagram’s use of advanced AI algorithms to automatically identify and blur out explicit images shared within direct messages is the driving force behind this initiative. This new safety measure serves two essential purposes.
- Preventing dissemination of sensitive content - The feature, when enabled, obstructs the visibility of sensitive personal pictures and also limits dissemination of the same.
- Empower minors to exercise more control over their social media - This cutting feature comes with the ability to disable the nudity protection at the will of users, allowing users, including minors, to regulate their exposure to age-inappropriate and harmful materials online. The nudity protection feature is enabled for all users under 18 as a default setting on Instagram globally. This measure guarantees a baseline standard of security for the most vulnerable demographic of users. Adults are able to exercise more autonomy over the feature, receiving periodic prompts for its voluntary activationWhen this feature detects an explicit image, it automatically blurs the image with cautionary overlay, enabling recipients to make an informed decision about whether or not they wish to view the flagged content. The decision to introduce this feature is an interesting and sensitive approach to balancing individual agency with institutionalising online protection.
Comprehensive Safety Measures Beyond Nudity Detection
The cutting-edge nudity protection feature is a crucial element of Instagram’s new strategy and is supported by a comprehensive set of measures devised to tackle sextortion and ensure a safe cyber environment for its users:
Awareness Drives and Safety Tips - Users sending and receiving sexually explicit content are directed to a screen with curated safety tips to ensure complete user awareness and inspire due diligence. These safety tips are critical in raising awareness about the risks of sharing sensitive content and inculcating responsible online behaviour.
New Technology to Identify Sextortionists - Meta Platforms are constantly evolving, and new sophisticated algorithms are introduced to better detect malicious accounts engaged in possible sextortion. These proactive measures check for any predatory behaviour so that such threats can be neutralised before they escalate and do grave harm.
Superior Reporting and Support Mechanisms - Instagram is implementing new technology to bolster its reporting mechanisms so that users reporting concerns pertaining to nudity, sexual exploitation and threats are instantaneously directed to local child safety authorities for necessary support and assistance.
This new sophisticated approach highlights Instagram's Commitment to forging a safer haven for users by addressing various aspects of this grim issue through the three-pronged strategy of detection, prevention and support.
User’s Safety and Accountability
The implementation of the nudity protection feature and various associated safety measures is Meta’s way of tackling the growing concern about user safety in a more proactive manner, especially when it concerns minors. Instagram’s experience with this feature will likely be the sandbox in which Meta tests its new user protection strategy and refines it before extending it to other platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp.
Critical Reception and Future Outlook
The nudity protection feature has been met with positive feedback from experts and online safety advocates, commending Instagram for taking a proactive stance against sextortion and exploitation. However, critics also emphasise the need for continued innovation, transparency, and accountability to effectively address evolving threats and ensure comprehensive protection for all users.
Conclusion
As digital spaces continue to evolve, Meta Platforms must demonstrate an ongoing commitment to adapting its safety measures and collaborating with relevant stakeholders to stay ahead of emerging challenges. Ongoing investment in advanced technology, user education, and robust support systems will be crucial in maintaining a secure and responsible online environment. Ultimately, Instagram's nudity protection feature represents a significant step forward in the fight against online sexual exploitation and abuse. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, fostering user awareness, and implementing comprehensive safety protocols, Meta Platforms is setting a positive example for other social media platforms to prioritise user safety and combat predatory behaviour in digital spaces.
References
- https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/instagram-testing-blurring-nudity-messages-protect-teens-sextortion-rcna147402
- https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/11/meta-will-auto-blur-nudity-in-instagram-dms-in-latest-teen-safety-step/
- https://hypebeast.com/2024/4/instagram-dm-nudity-blurring-feature-teen-safety-info
