How Netflix is challenging censorship in India

A historical perspective on the race to create covid-19 vaccines

Sponsored by Darktrace The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Transcending Bollywood 03.24.21 Good morning! Today: how Netflix is testing the limits of censorship in India, and a historical perspective on the incredible race to create covid-19 vaccines. Don't forget to get friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.  How Netflix is challenging censorship in India   Anurag Kashyap has developed a cult following in India since his first Hindi film, Paanch (Five), was banned for extreme violence in 2003. When Netflix launched in India in 2016, it hired Kashyap to co-direct its first original series, Sacred Games, about an underworld don in Mumbai who ensnares an upright police officer. It was a superhit.  The series starred A-list Hindi film actors. Since streaming services weren’t, at the time, subject to the rules of India’s Central Board of Film Certification, Kashyap was able to transcend the grammar of Bollywood. His characters engaged with each other naturally—they swore, they talked politics, they had sex. To viewers exhausted by the predictable spectacles of Bollywood song and dance, Sacred Games was a thrill. To Kashyap, Netflix represented a promise of liberty. This promise is important not just to Kashyap and other filmmakers, but to the 1.4 billion people living in India. Well-resourced cinema and television that can grapple with the issues of the day matter to the culture of a nation. Netflix represents a threat to the conservative, Hindu-nationalist worldview of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has recently renewed a campaign of censorship and intimidation against Kashyap and others like him.  The rise of Netflix in India is a story of why technology matters: not as an end in itself, but as a means of artistic—and human—flourishing. Read the full story. —Sonia Faleiro This story is for subscribers only. If you want to read the whole thing, why not treat yourself to a subscription? It's just $50 a year to access all of our award-winning journalism. A historical perspective on the race to create covid-19 vaccines  Through the decades the development of a vaccine has always been a major milestone, making it all the more remarkable that we invented multiple covid-19 vaccines in less than a year. We dug into MIT Technology Review’s archives and found three articles that help to put this momentous achievement into some historical perspective: one from 1961 on the discovery of the polio vaccine, one from 1992 discussing whether the government should step in to create vaccines too risky or unprofitable for industry to make, and another from 2002 about the prospect of a vaccine for AIDS. Read the full story. This story is the last we'll be showcasing from the latest issue of MIT Technology Review, a comprehensive look at the topic of progress. Read the full magazine.  We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Check out the Poorly Drawn Pets fundraiser, working to raise money for Iowa's Animal Rescue League. Thanks for this incredibly wholesome content Alyssa <3    + Dolphins have been hanging out in a canal in Venice (for real this time).   + Swans are getting real demanding in Northampton, England.   + Make yourself some soy pickled radishes. Or, combine the twin joys of math and baking to create a six-inch cake. Sponsor Message Defend against cyber-threats with AI Darktrace AI identifies malicious activity hiding in your digital ecosystem and acts autonomously to neutralize the threat. Find out why McLaren relies on self-learning AI to detect and disrupt cyber-attacks at machine-speed. Learn more > The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 US health officials accused AstraZeneca of "cherry-picking" its vaccine study data The spat is not great for public confidence in the vaccine. (AP)    + You might eventually be able to inhale your covid-19 vaccine. (AFP, The Straits Times)   + Florida's experience suggests that faster is not necessarily better when it comes to rolling out vaccines. (Tampa Bay Times)   + Pfizer has started testing an oral antiviral drug for covid-19. (CNBC)   + The dark web is bursting with covid-19 vaccines and vaccine passports. (Ars Technica)   + The EU is going to ban vaccine exports for six weeks. (NYT $)  2 We finally learn what is and isn't allowed on Facebook Its secret moderation rules have been leaked, and predictably, they are a mess. (The Guardian)   + Calling for the death of public figures is okay, for example. (The Guardian)   + The leak shows how Facebook adapts to keep operating in repressive regimes. (The Guardian)   + Facebook left it too late to tackle misinformation in the 2020 election. (FT $)   + YouTube is refusing to take down a livestreamed video of the Boulder shooting. (Vice)  3 What data can't do "When you measure, include the measurer." (New Yorker $)   4 A giant ship is blocking the Suez Canal 🚢 Pure chaos. (NYT $)   + So… what happens next? (New Scientist $)  5 Startups are cashing in on people's desire to show off their digital art If you bought an NFT and you didn't brag about it, did it even happen? (WSJ $)   + The first NFT digital home sold for over half a million dollars. (Dezeen)  6 These devices sniff the air to check for coronavirus If these can be made quick, convenient, and accurate enough, they could make a big difference. (NYT $)   7 Work won't return to normal Here are some of the changes we can expect to see become permanent. (Recode)   + As Silicon Valley goes remote, its shadow workforce is suffering. (Wired $)   8 Why aren't robots doing all our housework yet? 🤖🧹 Robots are great at doing one repetitive thing. Challenges abound when it comes to getting them to do more. (WP $)    9 It took The Pentagon 22 days to post a meme And yes, it's terrible. (Vice)   10 NASA is preparing to fly the first helicopter on Mars in a few days An exciting milestone. (BBC) Not an expert? Not a problem. Our team is full of those. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today for an insightful look into technology for the future without getting bogged down by the jargon. Quote of the day "A mom will look at a picture and see her child, just normal. I will see the child and the garbage can that’s on the playground, and somebody’s foot with some ugly sandal." —Isabelle Dervaux explains to the New Yorker why people hire curators like her to sift through their camera rolls and decide what to keep, and what to discard. Top image credit: Max-o-matic Please send six-inch cakes to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Don't settle for half the story. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for access to subscriber-only content and more.   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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