3§

“the knowing of what one knows and what one does not know that one does not know” 

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@ayyappsraj @FirstClubIndia Best Wishes!!

Btw when are you guys launching in Hyderabad?

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

Statement on MeitY's notice to WhatsApp over the "usernames" feature

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has sent WhatsApp a notice about the usernames feature it announced on 29 June 2026. The notice asks the company to explain, within three days, why regulatory action should not be taken against it "for launching a feature that may increase cybercrimes", and it directs the company "not to roll out this feature until the consultation on this point is achieved to the satisfaction of the Government". The Internet Freedom Foundation is concerned that the notice has no clear basis in law. It is an attempt by the executive to decide what a company may build and ship, which no statute permits.

The notice treats the launch of a lawful feature as a wrong the company must justify. That reverses the ordinary position especially given the absence of any clear legal power that exists. MeitY does not name any provision that lets it approve a product feature before release or order one withdrawn, because there is none, and the provisions it does cite do not supply that power.

Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 is a safe harbour that protects an intermediary from liability for what its users post, so long as it observes due diligence. It decides when a platform can be held liable. It is not a power for MeitY to decide what features the platform may offer. Sections 66C and 66D punish identity theft and cheating by personation. They are criminal offences, tried by courts, aimed at the person who steals an identity, not at the maker of a tool that a third party misuses. Also, on MeitY's logic, a telecom operator could be told not to sell SIM cards because SIM cards are used in almost every online fraud.

Rule 3(1)(b), Rule 3(2) and Rule 4 of the IT Rules, 2021 are due diligence and grievance obligations and cannot be converted into a licensing scheme. Section 69A, the one provision that lets MeitY control what appears online, permits the blocking of specific information through a set procedure. It says nothing about which features a company may build. Further the IT Rules, 2021 are subordinate legislation made under Sections 79 and 87 of the IT Act, and subordinate rules cannot travel beyond the parent statute (Ajoy Kumar Banerjee v. Union of India). If a rule cannot exceed the Act, a letter certainly cannot. The power to require prior permission for a feature is not in the Act, not in the Rules, and cannot be created by a notice.

MeitY has tried this before. In March 2024 it told the same large intermediaries, among them AI Companies, to obtain its explicit permission before deploying under-tested AI models. That was criticised as an overreach that sought to build a licensing mechanism with no empowering provision in the IT Act, and within a fortnight MeitY withdrew it and dropped the permission requirement. This notice repeats the move for a single feature and goes further, because it names one company, sets a three-day clock, and bars the launch until MeitY is satisfied.

This matters beyond WhatsApp. A power asserted against one company by letter can be turned on any company and any feature. On this reasoning MeitY could tell a browser not to switch on a privacy setting by default, or a payments app not to add a login method, each time until it was content. The notice also invokes traceability, through Rule 4(2) of the IT Rules, 2021 and the identification of the "first originator" of a message. Rule 4(2) has been challenged as exceeding its parent provision and resting on no law made by Parliament, and that challenge is pending before the Delhi High Court. Raising it against a feature meant to share fewer identifiers fits a pattern.

We ask MeitY to state the exact provision of law under which this notice, and the direction to halt the roll-out, has been issued, and to withdraw that direction. It should stop using Section 79 and the contested traceability rule as leverage to control product design and to reverse features that improve privacy. Impersonation and fraud are real risks, but they are met by enforcing the criminal law against those who commit them, and by open processes that rest on identified legal powers. They are not met by MeitY deciding, in private and by letter, what features Indians may use. That is a licence raj for software features.

New Delhi, 1 July 2026

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@UnamPillai found your long lost twin brother

https://t.co/EeGPpmhy0I

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

Lee Kuan Yew's biggest ideas went entirely against the grain of postcolonial states across the rest of the world.

In many ways, that is exactly why he was successful.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@josyjosephkj Loved reading Feast of Vultures and The Silent Coup.

Look forward to reading this

[Pavel Durov @durov]

India’s IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions.

This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.

And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@vikpat This is incredible

[Kris Kay | 🎲 444 Capital @thekriskay]

if you have a $1 net worth,

you are closer to the 2nd richest person on earth, than he is to Elon.

read that again.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

I would give it to them. This is brilliant on their part

[Prem Soni @ValueWithPrem]

Blinkit knows when your toddler has your phone, and it’s lowkey terrifying.

I was trying to trick my toddler that chocolates were out of stock, so I typed gibberish (the way a toddler would) into the search.

Look at the exact products the app served up as a fallback.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@MahimaJalan2 What would you do if she gets pregnant after 2-3 or 6 months of joining? How is this different except for the timeline?

Not a sly, just wanted to understand the thought process of hiring - where would you draw the line.

[jaivardhan @jaivardhan88]

Story time.

Almost 6-7 years ago, a much larger player offered to acquire Rapido for around $250 million.

The founders said no.

Follow this🧵to know what happened next.

[Pristina🤍🤍 @pristinaoffl]

Wait until she smiles 😆

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

I remember a BLR dealer once trying to clear unsold VW Phaeton inventory by offering a Beetle with every Phaeton.

The car was beauty, unfortunately, no taker

[Rattan Dhillon @ShivrattanDhil1]

I’m sure most people in India aren’t even aware of this Volkswagen model. The most over engineered, underrated luxury cruiser ever built!!

Volkswagen launched it in India to take on the Mercedes S-Class, Audi A8, and BMW 7 Series. The car was offered with multiple engine options, ranging from a V6 all the way up to a mighty W12!

This VW was priced above 1 Crore and didn't sell much, not just in India but also globally.

Back then, owning this VW was no less than owning one of the world’s finest luxury cars.

Can you guess the car?😉

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@vinodchendhil D rare occasions when I opt for COD is when the delivery is delayed.
I need a flexibility 2 cancel or switch to alternative with faster delivery, even then I prefer making payment when its on the way.
Else, there is no reason 2 opt 4 COD, as it is inconvenient and xtra charges.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@sajithpai In BLR, I was paying 7/ piece when I moved to Hyd,was surprised to see the price being 15-20 rs/piece.

On closer look, in BLR it was more like electric-based ironing and in HYD its coal-based ironing(haven't seen LPG).

Road side ironing is expensive compared to proper shop

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

Loved the Vantara Creamery website but this is not Jamun

https://t.co/38PSGt5jR2

[Greg Koenig @gak_pdx]

Jonny Ive is incredibly talented, but like most designers, he is very stuck in his time- the mid 2000s. The apex of Fukuyama end-of-history globalism where the flair of masculine brutality underlying everything during the Cold War gave way to a sort of Star Trek-genderless clean drive right up the middle of the bell curve driven by the belief that technology would lead to a more universalist human experience.
That time has passed.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

In 1 hour, only 7 shirts were ironed and the quality was pathetic,

Makes me wonder who benefits from this model.
-Customers aren't happy
- Helpers don't seem motivated
-and the company is loosing money.

Feels like a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

Tried an "InstaHelp" iservice for to see what the hype was about.
My impression:
-More focus on exhausting the booked time than finishing the task efficiently
-Work is unnecessarily slow
- Frequent requests for 5-star ratings

Totally underwhelming experience

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

@BasedPinkman @Starbucksbombay Around 400

[3§ @Pro_Ignorant]

Starbucks Cold Brew with Chocolate Protein Foam is Goated.

Try it if you haven't, initially I was skeptical and this is my 2nd time and at different outlet, it hits different.