A New Board For Gig Workers. Will It Make A Difference?

The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has notified the constitution of the National Social Security Board for gig and platform workers, a body mandated to recommend and monitor welfare schemes for a workforce that has long worked without the security of formal employment. 

The move follows the implementation of the Code on Social Security on November 21, 2025, which formally recognised gig and platform workers in law. The board includes representatives from the government, platform companies and workers’ organisations, but its constitution is only the beginning. 

The question now is what social security will look like for the people who keep the platform economy running, and whether it is equipped to address the precarious conditions in which many of them work. 

Last week, I attended a discussion organised by Janpahal, the Gig Workers Association and Arisi Policy Labs. Beauticians, domestic workers and technicians from across Delhi NCR spoke about the work that goes into making our lives a little more convenient. 

Their testimonies brought to mind some of the issues we have been reporting on at Decode: workers waking up to blocked IDs, no place to rest between orders, dealing with unpredictable earnings and penalties, and struggling to get answers when an automated system makes a decision that affects their livelihood. 

One observation from the discussion has stayed with me.

Vandana Vasudevan, author of OTP Please, spoke about how “customer is king” has never been more true. Think about what happens when we order something online. One person brings it to our doorstep, another collects it when we don't like it, and a third delivers the replacement. 

“An entire chain of people springs into action because we have a smartphone and can afford these conveniences. We need to ask ourselves what we have done to deserve this kind of privilege,” she said.

The new board is an opportunity to ask what security and welfare should look like for these chains of people. But it is also worth asking what happens when their IDs are blocked, their earnings are cut or a platform's decision leaves them without work. Who do they turn to, and who is accountable?

The promise of the platform economy is convenience without friction. For workers, however, the friction begins the moment they log in. 

Here are some stories which caught our attention this week.

Binance Replenishes Funds After $6.3 Billion Crypto Heist

Hackers stole $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, in what is being called the biggest crypto heist on record. The attack unfolded in just 20 minutes, after hackers compromised systems used to authorise transactions and drained wallets across multiple blockchains. The FBI attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. Binance says it has since replaced around $6 billion of the stolen funds using its own reserves.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s Website Restored After Four-Day Shutdown

Veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s website, which archived 12 years of his work, was taken offline by web host Hostinger on October 28 without prior warning and restored on November 2. The shutdown came days after Indiabulls founder Sameer Gehlaut, whose group operates in real estate and financial services, obtained a court order seeking the removal of a 2019 article. Hostinger reportedly cited a separate abuse report labelling the website “Fraud/Scam” when suspending the entire archive, rather than just the disputed article. Thakurta criticised the move as “backdoor censorship” through web-hosting providers.

Human Rights Watch Calls For Scrapping SIR Over Voter Exclusions

Human Rights Watch has urged the Election Commission to scrap the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging that it has arbitrarily excluded millions of eligible voters, disproportionately affecting women, Muslims and other marginalised communities. The statement flagged categories such as “logical discrepancies” that have led to arbitrary exclusions. It said the software used in the SIR was inaccessible to anyone outside the Election Commission and that its functioning had long remained opaque, raising concerns about its reliability.

ASCI Flags 60 Nutraceutical Advertisements For Misleading Health Claims

From promises of losing six kilos in 60 days to claims of reversing asthma and making skin look seven years younger, health and wellness advertisements are making some big promises. A new review by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found that all 60 nutraceutical advertisements it assessed between July and September violated its advertising code. The review examined 61 advertisements, with one case still under process. Among the concerns was the use of research on individual ingredients to make claims about entire products, without sufficient scientific evidence that the finished formulation delivered the promised results.

OpenAI's Safety Team Is Small. The Risks It Handles Are Not

An investigation by The Observer and Tortoise examines how OpenAI handles conversations involving users in psychological distress, and the limits of its safety systems. It tells the story of Joshua Enneking, whose family alleges that ChatGPT reinforced his suicidal thoughts and helped him prepare a suicide note before he died by suicide. Former OpenAI employees describe a small safety team handling a high volume of concerning conversations, with backlogs and difficult decisions over when to intervene. OpenAI is facing more than 75 lawsuits alleging that its chatbot contributed to suicides, mental health crises and violence. The company has disputed aspects of these claims.

In Case You Missed It

At Decode Internet this week, we followed stories of people, censorship and the internet.

A Blank Placard, A Press Conference: Over 200 Protests Posts Censored On Social Media
Protest videos, news reports and political memes faced takedowns during anti-CEC protests, with little clarity on why or how to challenge them. (Read here)

Decode This Week is your weekly guide to the technology changing how we live, work and navigate the world around us. From AI and algorithms to scams, surveillance, platforms and digital policy, we look beyond the hype to ask a simple question: what does this mean for you?

Until next week :)