Entertainment
YouTuber Rashid Siddiquee opposes Rs 500 cr defamation notice of Akshay Kumar.
Rashid Siddiquee a YouTuber has opposed the defamation notice issued against him by actor Akshay Kumar in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and refused to pay ₹500 crore damages sought by the star, claiming there was nothing defamatory in his videos.
Rashid Siddiquee has also urged Akshay Kumar to withdraw the notice, failing which he would initiate “appropriate legal proceedings” against the actor.
Akshay Kumar had on November 17 issued a defamation notice against Rashid Siddiquee seeking ₹ 500 crore in damages for making “false and baseless allegations” against him in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Akshay Kumar, in the notice sent through law firm IC Legal, said Rashid Siddiquee in his YouTube channel FF News has published several “defamatory, libelous and derogatory” videos.
Rashid Siddiquee, in his reply sent through his advocate JP Jayswal on Friday, claimed the allegations made by Akshay Kumar were “false, vexatious and oppressive and is raised with an intent to harass him”.
The reply further claimed that every Indian citizen has the fundamental right to freedom of speech.
It added that the content uploaded by Rashid Siddiquee cannot be considered as defamatory and that they are to be treated as viewpoints with objectivity.
“The news reported by Siddiquee was already in the public domain and he (Siddiquee) has placed reliance on other news channels as sources,” the reply stated.
It further questioned the delay in the defamation notice sent and said the videos were uploaded in August 2020.
“The damages of ₹ 500 crore are absurd and unwarranted and are made with the intent to pressurise Siddiquee,” the reply claimed.
Rashid Siddiquee sought Akshay Kumar to withdraw the notice and said if it is not done, he would initiate appropriate legal proceedings.
The YouTuber from Bihar further claimed that the actor was selectively targeting him.
“Akshay Kumar faced severe backlash after interviewing an influential politician, whereby thousands of people have made personal remarks against him on various YouTube videos and websites. Surprisingly, Kumar has not taken any action on the same, however, he has selectively chosen Siddiquee to saddle the blame of defamation,” the reply alleged.
The Mumbai police have also filed a case against Rashid Siddiquee on charges of defamation, public mischief and intentional insult for his posts against Mumbai police, the Maharashtra government and minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Rashid Siddiquee was on November 3 granted anticipatory bail by a local court in Mumbai, which directed him to cooperate in the investigation.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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