CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 17) – Nishant Shah
“Given the political nature of social life in India, I always grew up thinking that I could speak my mind about anything to anybody unless they can hit me, more or less, and sometimes also to people who can hit me. So there has always been a very vibrant atmosphere, at least of expression, which is not necessarily a bad thing; it’s not only a good thing because it allows for, I don’t know, the first thing that comes to mind is hate speeches during the 1992 communal violences in Bombay. But it also allows for people to sit on a park bench, in a garden, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and have a very strong critical reaction to whatever is happening around them, and sometimes it can be around celebrities, political figures, India's foreign policy and so on and so forth. I am saying that it would be unfair to think that people are not equipped to deal with questions of anonymous speech and the conditions that are necessary for it.”
Centre for Internet and Society presents its seventeenth installment of the CIS Cybersecurity Series.
The CIS Cybersecurity Series seeks to address hotly debated aspects of cybersecurity and hopes to encourage wider public discourse around the topic.
Nishant Shah is the co-founder and director of research at the Centre for Internet and Society. He studies questions of governance, identity, planning and body at the intersections of digital technologies, law and everyday cultural practice. He is a visiting researcher at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University, Germany, and an International Knowledge Partner on 'Youth, Technology and Change' with Hivos, Netherlands. He recently co-edited the four-volume book series "Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?" that captures discourse, practice and policy as it shapes and is shaped by youth driven, everyday practices of digital technologies and is currently working on looking at civic action in networked society.
This work was carried out as part of the Cyber Stewards Network with aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.
