On Thursday, August 26, Yahoo, which is an American Web service provider shut down its new services in India, because of the new foreign direct rules in India. As a result, now Yahoo has ceased the publication of content operations across India, which they have already started from Thursday. But this will not affect the web portal. So the web portal which is owned by the technology company Verizon media and has also assured all of the Yahoo users that their Yahoo accounts which also include their email and searching experiences will not be modified or affected in any manner.
So if anyone would search for the Yahoo India home page you can see the message by them regarding the closing of the news content publishing. The message goes like this, “as of August 26th, 2021, Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your yahoo account, mail, and search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership”. By saying that they will close all the content publishing, Yahoo means that the content offerings like Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Yahoo finance, entertainment, and MAKERS India will be closed.
And if one would search for the frequently asked question, that is, the FAQ section on the Yahoo website, now it will be showing that the company decided to cease the publication of all types of content in India, and as a result, they will shut down Yahoo’s content operation across the whole country. Further discussing this topic, Yahoo said that the changes in the Indian Yahoo website will be caused due to the changes in the country’s regulatory laws. According to April Boyd, head of global public policy, Verizon Media, said, “there have been changes in the rules limiting foreign ownership of media companies that operate in the news and current affairs space, including a digital media entity that streams, and uploads digital news and current affairs content in India and news aggregators”. They said, “we did not come to this decision lightly,” And also said, “that now limits the foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India.”
The FAQ (frequently asked questions) section also clarified the reason behind closing down Yahoo cricket. The page has clarified that yahoo cricket which comes under sports is also shutting down due to the “news” component it contains.
In 2017, US tech major Verizon acquired Yahoo. So the decision made by Verizon media to shut down Yahoo India’s operation was due to the changes in the regulatory laws which limited foreign funding of more than 26 % in digital news media outlets. Actually, in September 2020, the foreign direct investment that is FDI was captured by the union government in digital media to 26% so it also directed all the entities with over 26% to take necessary actions so that they can bring down the foreign investment to 26% by October 15, 2021, and as a result, can seek the approval of the ministry of information and broadcasting. And as for the new IT rules, it all resulted to restructure Yahoo India’s entire media business so that they can operate the news and current affairs business in the country within a specified time frame.
Yahoo has also reiterated that these changes will not affect the Yahoo mail and Yahoo search. Further, they thanked all Yahoo users in India for their “support and trust” and they have said that they will continue to serve all the users in India as before without any change.
