Internet Governance Blog
Web of Sameness
The social Web has been an ominous space at the start of 2013. It has been awash with horror, pain and grief. The recent gang rape and death of a medical student in Delhi prevents one from being too optimistic about the year to come. My live feeds on various social networks are filled with rue and rage at the gruesome incident and the seeming depravity of our society.
Draft International Principles on Communications Surveillance and Human Rights
These principles were developed by Privacy International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and seek to define an international standard for the surveillance of communications. The Centre for Internet and Society has been contributing feedback to the principles.
Statement of Solidarity on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Internet Users in Bangladesh
This is a statement on the violent attack on blogger Asif Mohiuddin by the participants to the Third South Asian Meeting on the Internet and Freedom of Expression that took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on January 14–15, 2013.
No Civil Society Members in the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee
The Government of India has taken our advice and reconstituted the Cyber Regulations Advisory Commitee. But there is no representation of Internet users, citizens, and consumers — only government and industry interests.
Mining the Web Collective
In March 2012, Dr Bruno Latour and his team from the Sciences Po Media Lab organized a workshop that assembled a selected group of researchers from India to explore methods of Controversy Mapping. It was hosted by Dr J. Srinivasan, Director of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
State Surveillance and Human Rights Camp: Summary
On December 13 and 14, 2012, the Electronic Frontier Foundation organized the Surveillance and Human Rights Camp held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The meeting examined trends in surveillance, reasons for state surveillance, surveillance tactics that governments are using, and safeguards that can be put in place to protect against unlawful or disproportionate surveillance.
Tomorrow, Today
Our present is the future that our past had imagined. Around the same time last year, I remember taking stock of the technologies that we live with and wondering what 2012 would bring in.
Internet-driven Developments — Structural Changes and Tipping Points
A symposium on Internet Driven Developments: Structural Changes and Tipping Points was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Harvard University from December 6 to 8, 2012. The symposium was sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation and was hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In this blog post, I summarize the discussions that took place over the two days and add my own personal reflections on the issues.
The Trouble with Hurried Solutions
The World Conference on International Telecommunication showed that countries are not yet ready to arrive at a consensus on regulation and control of the Internet
The Worldwide Web of Concerns
The International Telecommunication Union’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) is currently under way in Dubai, after a gap of 25 years. At this conference, the Inter-national Telecommunication Regulations — a binding treaty containing high-level principles — are to be revised.
The Worldwide Web of Concerns
The threat of a ‘UN takeover’ of the Internet through the WCIT is non-existent. However, that does not mean that activists have been crying themselves hoarse in vain.
Online Censorship: How Government should Approach Regulation of Speech
Why is there a constant brouhaha in India about online censorship? What must be done to address this?
Comments on the Proposed Rule 138A of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 Concerning Radio Frequency Identification Tags
The Centre for Internet & Society gave its comments on the proposed Rule 138A of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. The comments were made in response to Notification GSR 738(E) published in the Gazette of India on October 3, 2012.
Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000: Cases
In this blog post Snehashish Ghosh summarizes the facts of a few cases where Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000, has been mentioned or discussed.
Transcripts from WCIT-12
We are archiving copies of the live-transcripts from the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT-12) which is being held in Dubai from 3–14 December, 2012.
So Much to Lose
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have been a witness to the maelstrom of events that accompanied the death of the political leader Bal Thackeray.
Fixing India’s anarchic IT Act
Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act criminalizes “causing annoyance or inconvenience” online, among other things. A conviction for such an offence can attract a prison sentence of as many as three years.
Breaking Down Section 66A of the IT Act
Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which prescribes 'punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.' is widely held by lawyers and legal academics to be unconstitutional. In this post Pranesh Prakash explores why that section is unconstitutional, how it came to be, the state of the law elsewhere, and how we can move forward.
Draft nonsense
Seriously flawed and dodgily drafted provisions in the IT Act provide the state a stick to beat its citizens with.
DoT Blocks Domain Sites — But Reasons and Authority Unclear
Earlier this year, ISPs such as Airtel and MTNL blocked a number of domain sites including BuyDomains, Fabulous Domains and Sedo.co.uk. Whereas the Indian Government and courts have previously issued orders blocking websites, these actions have generally been attributed to issues such as posting of inflammatory content or piracy of copyrighted material. However, the reasoning behind blocking domain marketplaces such as the above mentioned sites is not clear.
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