Yahoo shuts down news operations in India over FDI regulations, details here

American web services provider Yahoo shut down its services in India on Thursday, August 26, thereby ceasing the publication of content operations across the country from this day onwards. However, the web portal, owned by technology company Verizon Media, assured its users that their Yahoo accounts, e-mail, and search experiences will not be affected in any manner.

"As of August 26th, 2021, Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content," a statement on the Yahoo India homepage read. "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."

According to the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on the Yahoo website, the company has decided to cease publication of all content in India, shutting down Yahoo's content operations across the country. The content offerings closed include Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Yahoo Finance, Entertainment, and MAKERS India.

"We did not come to this decision lightly," Yahoo said, adding that the company's operations in India were impacted by the recent changes to the country's regulatory laws "that now limit the foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India."

Verizon Media took the decision to shut down Yahoo India's operations due to the changes in rules limiting foreign funding of more than 26% in digital news media outlets. The new IT rules meant that Yahoo India would have to restructure its entire media business within a specified timeframe to operate the news and current affairs business in the country.

Thanking all its users in India for the "support and trust" over the past two decades, Yahoo reiterated that the development does not impact Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search, which it said, "will continue to serve users in India as before, without any change."