Centre for Internet and Society

Govt likely to issue guidelines to clarify IT rules soon

praskrishna — 2012-12-20T05:24:14Z

Norms relate to the role of intermediaries such as telcos, Web service providers, others on hosting content online, writes Surabhi Agarwal.

The article was first published in LiveMint on December 16, 2012.

After the government issued guidelines on the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, it is expected to soon come out with similar guidelines to clarify the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011, that have also been heavily criticised.

A senior official of the department of electronics and information technology said that even though the government is not looking at amending the overall Act as the legislative process for that would be time consuming, it is hoping to issue guidelines within a week.

The rules were notified in April 2011 with the aim of clearly defining the role of intermediaries—including telcos, Internet and web-hosting service providers and search engines—while hosting content on their networks and websites along with ensuring some level of due diligence by them.

However, this led to outrage among the Internet community as the rules mandated hosts or owners of the websites to take action against “objectionable content” within 36 hours of receiving a complaint. Experts argued that the rules could lead to censorship attempts with some intermediaries complying with illegitimate requests to remove content from websites in a bid to avoid litigation.

The government official said that there had been some confusion about what it meant to take action within 36 hours.

“While the intent was to ensure that intermediaries take cognizance of the request and initiate some proceeding on it, it has been misconstrued as removing content within 36 hours in some cases,” this person said.

The official added that the government was looking at clarifying issues such as this. “We are currently studying the representations sent by different stakeholders on the rules.”

Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), said that the term “act” should be replaced by “acknowledge” to ensure that it is not wrongly interpreted as removing content within 36 hours.

“We have also requested the time period to be extended to 72 hours as 36 hours is sometimes too short a period if it falls during the weekend,” he said.

While only some clauses address issues such as national interest, public order and security restrictions under which content can be removed, “the remainder of grounds includes private claims such as content which ‘belongs to another person’, or otherwise infringes proprietary rights, or is ‘defamatory’,” said Bangalore-based think tank Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in its representation, of which Mint has a copy. Moreover, other terms, such as ‘grossly harmful’, ‘harassing’ and ‘disparaging’, are “terminologically indeterminate and purely subjective”, the representation said. It also said that “the intermediary guidelines create a two-track system by which private censorship is legitimized online”.

IAMAI’s recommendations include clearly defining who can qualify as the ‘affected person’ eligible to post a complaint on content, which has currently been left to the discretion and determination of the intermediary.

Ray’s representation also said the rules put the burden of interpretation and acting upon third-party content on the intermediary. “This, we believe is the function of the judiciary and not the intermediaries,” it said.

Guidelines, while bringing some initial clarity, may not be enough, said an executive at a top technology firm who did not want to be identified. “To ensure long-term solutions to some of the issues highlighted, the Act needs to be amended eventually,” he said.

Late last month, the government promised to issue guidelines to the states that complaints under the controversial Section 66A of the IT Act, which criminalizes “causing annoyance or inconvenience” online or electronically, can be registered only with the permission of an officer at or above the rank of deputy commissioner of police, and inspector general in metro cities. However, even in the case of Section 66A, it did not amend the terms in the Section that are said to be vague and subject to interpretation.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-december-16-2012-surabhi-agarwal-govt-likely-to-issue-guidelines-to-clarify-it-rules-soon

Access to Knowledge Workshop @ NMAMIT, Karkala Taluk, Karnataka

praskrishna — 2012-12-19T07:20:31Z

The Centre for Internet & Society in collaboration with Metawing Technologies (P) Ltd. is organizing a Wikipedia workshop at NMAMIT, Karkala Taluk, Karnataka on December 21, 2012, from 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

Over 100 students are expected to participate in this workshop. The primary aim of the workshop is to educate them about Wikipedia in Indian languages and tell them how they can contribute to Wikipedia.

CIS is willing to bear the travelling expense for upto two wikipedians to and from Bangalore (or any other place in Karnataka that is close to Karkala).

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/a2k-workshop-at-nmamit

The freedom of expression debate: The State must mend fences with The Web

praskrishna — 2013-01-07T10:30:21Z

A fortnight after her arrest, Renu Srinivasan spends her free time singing Ashley Tisdale's number Suddenly. The lyrics - Suddenly people know my name, suddenly, everything has changed - resonate with the story of her life ever since she 'liked' and 'shared' her friend, Shaheen Dhada's, 21, controversial post regarding Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's funeral on Facebook on November 18 and got arrested for it.

The article by Rahul Jayaram was published in India Today on December 18, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

She's now flooded with "hundreds" of messages on FB; some congratulatory, others abusive and gets at least a dozen friend requests on the social networking site. When Renu went to the doctor last week, two constables accompanied her.

"All of a sudden, there's too much attention on me," says the Botany graduate from Dandekar College and a budding singer who is making new friends in the virtual world. There's, however, a word from caution from her father P.A. Srinivasan: "Don't comment on controversial issues you don't understand."

Bloggers are careful. Krish Ashok, a well-known blogger is disappointed with the government's lack of engagement with India's surging online community. In a blog post in August 2010, he made fun of the Ramayana and the fact that women couldn't enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. A group called Hindu Janajagruti Samiti threatened to take him to court. Ashok spoke to his lawyer.

"I was amazed. She said no individual could take action against me. But a group or organisation could," he says. Since then, he has become more aware of his Internet rights.

Gursimran Khamba, who has over 30,000 followers on Twitter, kept his cool during Thackeray's death and funeral. When all the media went gaga over him, televising his family photo albums, Khamba, re-tweeted reports and accounts of the Shiv Sena's role during the Mumbai riots of 1992-93. "In my head, I am not courageous to say anything about it myself," he says. He didn't want to incite. He'd rather help his followers get a more nuanced picture of a venerated leader.

Palghar and after, has made Ashok think. "I would reduce the number of provocative posts I might make," he says. Khamba says he will stick to comedy and doesn't believe in offence for the sake of offending although "taking offence is our national sport."

It is a shame, for the Internet is growing in India like nobody's business. It's the medium of the age.

According to comScore, a company that measures Internet trends, India is the fastest growing online market in the last 12 months among BRIC nations. There were 44.5 million unique visitors in July 2011 and in July 2012 there were 62.6 million unique visitors. That is, a growth of 44 per cent in one year. The total Internet usage of 124.7 million users in July 2012, that is, a 41 per cent growth from last year (July 2011).

With 124 million users as of July 2012, India has an Internet penetration of 10 per cent. 75 per cent of India's online users are below the age of 35 making it one of the youngest Net-connected populations. 39.3 per cent of India's Internet population consists of females. It has the highest growth seen among 15 to 24 male and female segments. India has 56.2 million Facebook users and 4.1 million Twitter users. Facebook had 35.3 million users in July 2011 and it jumped to 52.1 million in July 2012. That's a growth of 47% in just one year!

Growth of the Internet is one thing. Freedom of the Internet is another. Freedom House, an American organisation that tracks political and civil liberties worldwide, is blunt in its assessment. India is third in terms of Internet penetration, after the United States and China. Before November 2008, government control over the Internet was limited. All that changed after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Since then it says, "The need, desire, and ability of the Indian government to monitor, censor, and control the communication sector have grown. Given the range of security threats facing the country, many Indians feel that the government should be allowed to monitor personal communications such as telephone calls, email messages, and financial transactions. It is in this context that Parliament passed amendments to the Information Technology Act (ITA) in 2008, expanding censorship and monitoring capabilities. This trend continued in 2011 with the adoption of regulations increasing surveillance in cyber cafes. Meanwhile, the government and non-state actors have intensified pressure on intermediaries, including social media applications, to remove upon request a wide range of content vaguely defined as "offensive" and potentially pre-screen user-generated content. Despite new comprehensive data protection regulations adopted in 2011, the legal framework and oversight surrounding surveillance and interception remains weak, and several instances of abuse have emerged in recent years."

Over this year we have had the cases of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi being put in jail and later released in September. In April, Ambikesh Mahaptra of Jadavpur University in Kolkata was arrested for a cartoon poking fun at West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee and Railway Minister Mukul Roy. In October, Ravi, owner of plastic packaging material factory was arrested and let off on bail for joking about Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's son, Karti. The list gets longer. The Web and the State are at loggerheads. Why?

Lawyers and bloggers haul up Internet laws. And for such a community, we have laws like Section 66 (A) of the Information Technology Act of 2000. The law states that "any person who sends by means of a computer resource or a communication device, any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character," can be booked for online crime.

Legal experts think Section 66 (A) and the whole of the IT Act of 2000, needs revisiting. According to cyber lawyer Pavan Duggal, Section 66 (A) "is a vanilla provision that can be used for anything online."

Section 66(A) seeks to empower the police and the complainant. "The words 'grossly offensive' and 'menacing character' of Section 66 (A) have no definition given. Normal, legitimate bona fide conversation between boyfriend and girlfriend at noble times online is fine. Once relationship sours, and they are gone."

"It's not clear what the purpose of Section 66A is. It's like having a single provision covering murder, assault, intimidation, and nuisance, and prescribing the same penalty for all of them," says Pranesh Prakash of the Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore. Terminology and the law's purpose are massive concerns.

"The extent of the ambiguity of Section 66A is worrying. Laws need to be very clear about what they want to achieve. If it is murder, then it must say murder. If its attempted murder, it must be clear it is attempted murder. Section 66 A is trying to do too many things at the same time. Its canvas is too vast," says Rajeev Chandrasekar.

As a country, we look to imitate the West, and often copy it badly. Some wonder if we need to mime the West. Pranesh Prakash thinks the Indian Constitution is stronger on free speech grounds than the (unwritten) UK Constitution, and the judiciary has wide powers of judicial review of statutes (i.e., the ability of a court to strike down a law passed by Parliament as 'unconstitutional').

Judicial review of statutes does not exist in the UK (with review under its EU obligations being the exception) as they believe that Parliament is supreme, unlike India. Putting those two aspects together, a law that is valid in the UK might well be unconstitutional in India for failing to fall within the eight octagonal walls of the reasonable restrictions allowed under Article 19(2).

Rajeev Chandrasekar thinks the Brits got it right. During the London riots of June 2011, "the UK government kept a tab on social media networking sites so as to check incitement, he says. It was a good example of clear legislation and effective execution, in an extreme scenario." To defuse online paranoia he wants the government to have a multi-stakeholder arrangement in fixing IT laws. This must involve users, IT companies, cyber cafe owners and the government. The State must mend fences with the Web.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-today-rahul-jayaram-december-18-2012-the-freedom-of-expression-debate

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — November 2012

praskrishna — 2012-12-14T08:20:48Z

This is the third Access to Knowledge newsletter from the CIS team in Delhi! This issue gives a summary of the first Odia Wikipedia education program, workshops organised in Bhubaneswar and Delhi, a meet-up held in Kolkata, hackathons held in Delhi and Hyderabad, and news and media coverage during the month of November.

Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation has awarded CIS a two-year grant of upto INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program has become the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). In this issue we bring you updates from the Kolkata wiki community, the Odia wiki community, a report of a workshop organized exclusively for women in Mumbai, Wikipedia hackathon organised in Delhi and Hyderabad, and the recent news and media coverage. Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

CIS Office in Delhi

The A2K team consists of three members: Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval. Shiju Alex left the organisation. November 16 was his last working day.

Education Program

First Odia Wikipedia Education Program to be Rolled Out (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 30, 2012). The program was initiated at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Dhenkanal on November 8, 2012.

Workshops Organised by CIS:

Odia Wikipedia Workshop at AML (Academy of Media Learning, Bhubaneswar, November 10, 2012).
Follow up to Wikipedia Introductory Session (Bharati Vidyapeeth, Delhi, November 19, 2012).
An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB (KMBB College, Bhubaneswar, November 19, 2012).

Workshop Organised by Wiki Community

Wikipedia Women's Workshop in Mumbai (by Noopur Raval, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala, Mumbai, November 4, 2012).

Meetup Organised by CIS

Kolkata: Tasting the Sweetness of Wikipedia! (Kolkata, November 3, 2012).

Hackathon organised by CIS

A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi (CIS, New Delhi, November 11, 2012).

Hackathon Participation

Wikipedia Hackathon (organised by BITS, Hyderabad, October 25 – 27, 2012).

News and Media Coverage

‘Some Indian laws could be challenging’ (by Kalyan Subramani, Bangalore Mirror, November 15, 2012)
A Report of the Odia Wikipedia Workshop held in KMBB College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar (Sambad, November 19, 2012).
OdishaDiary conferred prestigious Odisha Youth Inspiration Award 2012 to Odia Wikipedia team (by Pravuprasad Routray, Orissa Diary, November 23, 2012).
વિકિપીડિયા ગુજરાતી માં પણ છે (by Harsh Kothari, Cybersafar, November 28, 2012).

Blog Entry

Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy! (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 19, 2012).

About CIS

CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom.

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

Follow us elsewhere

Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter
Join the CIS group on Facebook
Visit us at http://cis-india.org

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-november-2012

Hacktivists deface BSNL website

praskrishna — 2012-12-14T05:20:56Z

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) website, www.bsnl.co.in, was hacked and defaced on Thursday afternoon.

The article by Kim Arora was published in the Times of India on December 13, 2012. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

A message on the home page said the attack was carried out by the hacktivist group, Anonymous India, as a protest against section 66 A of the IT Act and in support of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar since Dec 8 for the same. The website was restored around 7 pm.

Trivedi said he had received a call from Anonymous around 1.30 in the afternoon informing him that the website has been defaced. On being asked if such a form of protest was valid, Trivedi said, "When the government doesn't pay heed to people's protests against its laws and arrests innocent people for Facebook posts, then such a protest is absolutely valid."

For most of the afternoon and early evening, the BSNL website wasn't available directly. A cached version of the BSNL home page showed an image of cartoonist Trivedi with text that read "Hacked by Anonymous India. support Aseem trivedi (cartoonist) and alok dixit on the hunger strike. remove IT Act 66a databases of all 250 bsnl site has been d Hacked by Anonymous India (sic)". While this message was repeated over and over on the page, it ended with the line "Proof are (sic) here" followed by a link to a page containing the passwords to BSNL databases. BSNL officials were unaware of the attack until Thursday evening.

Late in the evening, Anonymous India tweeted from their account @opindia_revenge: "BSNL Websites hacked, passwords and database leaked... Anonymous India demands withdrawal of Sec 66A of IT Act."

In an open letter to the Government of India posted on alternate media website Kafila in June this year, Anonymous had explained they only carried out Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Indian government websites, which is different from the act of hacking per se.

Contrary views too exist. Sunil Abraham, executive director, Centre for Internet and Society, says the attack was unwarranted. "Speech regulation in India is not a lost cause, the Minister is holding consultations, MPs are raising the issue in Parliament, courts have been approached and there is massive public outcry on social media. Therefore I would request Anonymous India to desist from defacing websites," said Abraham. A group of MPs, including Baijayant Jay Panda from Odisha, are scheduled to present a motion in Parliament on Friday morning for the amendment of section 66A of the IT Act.

Last month, two young girls were arrested in Palghar, Maharashtra, for criticizing on Facebook the bandh that followed the death of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray. Before that, Karti Chidambaram, son of finance minister P Chidambaram, took a man to court for commenting on his financial assets on Twitter. In both cases, the complainant 'used' section 66 A of the IT Act. The section and the Act have since come in for wide debate regarding freedom of speech.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-india-times-december-13-2012-kim-arora-hacktivists-deface-bsnl-website

Ayodhya trending on Twitter sparks censorship concerns

praskrishna — 2012-12-12T10:38:01Z

On the 20th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, the ShauryaDiwas, Ayodhya and Babri Masjid hashtags were trending on Twitter all day, with almost 2,500 messages sent over 48 hours.

Surabhi Agarwal's article was published in LiveMint on December 6, 2012. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

The tag ShauryaDiwas was used by supporters of the demolition and was used in half the total number of tweets.

Experts said the public display of extreme views on a social networking platform has the potential to create social unrest, leaving the government with few options but to regulate content, in turn fuelling the Internet censorship debate further.

A senior government official said that in a situation in which there are serious national security implications, the government has no option but to "block content" in order to stop communal sentiment from flaring up.

According to social web analytics firm Social Hues, the tweets reached an audience of 456,000 followers. However, according to Vinita Ananth, chief executive of Social Hues, there were also messages that "condemned the call for ShauryaDiwas” tagging it ShameDiwas. "New platforms like Twitter are providing real-time feedback on public sentiment, which is unprecedented."

Ashis Nandy, political and social analyst, said that even though very few Indians are on platforms such as Twitter, communications over them give a hint of what a certain section of the society is thinking about.

"It is a small representation of the middle class, which is driven by ideology and some of the people with extreme opinions may also belong to this group, so perhaps it could have some security implications," he said.

Fringe groups such as those above tend to take extreme positions to get attention, said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organization, the Centre for Internet and Society.

Having learnt their lessons after the recent Assam-related panic, intelligence agencies are now keeping a close watch on the Internet, another government official said.

"If necessary, posts will be removed through legitimate ways," the official said, adding that a debate was underway about how to strike a balance between freedom of speech and the lawful requirement of agencies. "Mischief by a few people creates nuisance in society. The government is now looking for ways through which it can regionally block or remove inflammatory tweets. We don’t want to curb freedom of speech and the government doesn’t have any such intentions either," the official said.

Hate messages on social media had sparked a panic exodus of people from the north-east from cities such as Bangalore, Pune and Chennai in August.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-december-6-2012-surabhi-agarwal-ayodhya-trending-on-twitter-sparks-censorship-concerns

Leslie Chan Lectures in Tiruvananthapuram and Mysore

praskrishna — 2012-12-12T06:26:42Z

Prof. Leslie Chan from the University of Toronto, Canada is giving a series of lectures in Tiruvananthapuram and Mysore from December 17, 2012 to December 19, 2012.

Programme of Prof. Leslie Chan in Thiruvananthapuram

Knowledge Management in the Open Access Environment
Date: December 17, 2012 Time: 11.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Venue: Dept. of Library & Information Science, University of Kerala Organiser: University of Kerala Contact person : Dr. KP Vijayakumar / 9496749901 (Mob) / 0471-2308034 (Off) E-Mail : kpvijayakumar2@gmail.com
Emerging Trends in Scholarly Communications and Impact Measures in the Open Knowledge Environment
Date: December 17, 2012 Time: 3.00 p.m. – 5.00 p.m. Venue: National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science & Technology (NIIST)(CSIR), Pappanamcode, Trivandrum Organiser: NIIST and CSIR Contact person: Mrs. Nishy P/9645086468 (Mob)/0471-2515293(Off) E-Mail: nishy22@gmail.com Evening : Discussion with Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai, Executive Vice President, KSCSTE, Sasthrabhavan, Trivandrum
Lecture-cum-Open Forum on Open Access Initiatives (OAI)
Time: 10.30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Venue:Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management-Kerala (IIITMK), Technopark, Trivandrum Organiser: IITMK Contact person : KP Sadasivan : 9447903282 (Mob) / 0471-2527567 Ext.103 (Off) E-Mail: kps31147@yahoo.com or sadasivan.kp@iiitmk.ac Afternoon : Visit to ICFOSS, Technopark, Trivandrum (Co-sponsored by IIITMK & ICFOSS) Contact person : KP Sadasivan : 9447903282 (Mob) / 0471-2527567 Ext.103 (Off) E-Mail : kps31147@yahoo.com or sadasivan.kp@iiitmk.ac

A Special Lecture by Prof. Leslie Chan in Mysore

Emerging Trends in Scholarly Communications and Impact Measures in the Open Knowledge Environment
Organisers: Mysore University Library, Department of Studies in Library and Information Science (DLIS-UoM), Mysore Library and Information Scientist’s Association (MyLISA) and SDM Institute of Management Development, Mysore. Date: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Venue: Manasa Media Centre, Mysore University Library, Manasagangotri, Mysore

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/leslie-chan-lectures-in-tiruvananthapuram-and-mysore

66A ‘cut & paste job’

praskrishna — 2012-12-11T05:43:50Z

The controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act has borrowed words out of context from British and American laws, according to lawyers here who are calling it a “poor cut-and-paste job”.

GS Mudur's article was published in the Telegraph on December 3, 2012. Pranesh Prakash and Snehashish Ghosh are quoted.

Section 66A, passed by Parliament in December 2008, draws on laws passed in the UK in 1988 and 2003 and the US in 1996. But some lawyers say that, unlike 66A, those foreign laws impose only reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech.

"The text of 66A seems to be the result of a cut-and-paste job done without applying the mind," said Snehashish Ghosh, a lawyer with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a non-government organisation in Bangalore.

Some of the language in Section 66A is taken from Britain’s Malicious Communications Act (MCA) of 1988, which begins with the words: "Any person who sends to another person...."

This provision in MCA 1988, Ghosh said, is intended to curb malicious messages from one person to another. "It does not cover a post on a social website or an electronic communication broadcast to the world."

Section 66A has also borrowed words from Britain’s Communications Act of 2003 which, Ghosh said, is intended to prevent abuse of public communication services and does not directly deal with messages sent by individuals.

Government officials have said that 66A has also plucked language from the US Telecommunications Act of 1996.

This was a landmark legislation that overhauled America’s telecommunication law by taking into account the emergence of the Internet and changing communications technologies. Among other things, it made illegal the transmission of obscene or indecent material to minors via computers.

"Section 66A in its current form fails to define a specific category (context) as defined in the laws from where it has borrowed words," Ghosh said. "This is what has led to its inconsistent and arbitrary applications."

Ghosh and his colleagues say that 66A, through an "absurd" combination of borrowed and ambiguous language, curbs freedom of expression and threatens people with three years’ imprisonment for certain offences that would otherwise, under existing Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions, draw a fine of only Rs 200.

Section 66A(b), for example, clubs together the offences of persistently repeated communications that might lead to "annoyance", "inconvenience", "danger", "insult", "injury", "criminal intimidation", "enmity", "hatred", and "ill-will".

This is "astounding and unparalleled", said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the CIS, who has posted an analysis of Section 66A on the NGO’s institutional blog.

"We do not have such a provision anywhere but in India’s information technology law."

This is “akin to... providing equal punishment for calling someone a moron (insult) and threatening to kill someone (criminal intimidation),” Prakash wrote in the blog, where he has listed existing IPC provisions that can deal with the offences that 66A seeks to cover.

Lawyers have also questioned 66A’s effect of criminalising what the existing IPC would label as civil offences. For example, Prakash said, while the punishment under IPC for criminal nuisance is Rs 200, the penalty imposed by 66A is jail for up to three years.

Several sections in the IPC, they said, can effectively address offences that 66A attempts to address exclusively for electronic communications. For example, the IPC has sections for defamation (499 and 500), outraging religious sentiments (295) and obscenity (292).

"We do not require extraordinary laws when existing laws suffice," Ghosh said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/telegraphindia-december-3-2012-gs-mudur-66a-cut-and-paste-job

I&N Partners’ Meeting – Rio

praskrishna — 2013-01-07T12:24:59Z

Information and Networks Partners is organising this event in Rio de Janerio on December 11 - 13, 2012. Sunil Abraham is participating as a speaker in the session on Open Business and IP.

Agenda

Day 1, December 11, 2012

8:30-9:30	Introduction – Why we are here
9:30-11:00	Session 1: The Networked Landscape in the South Mike Jensen and Steve Song/ Helani Galpaya, Alison Gilwald, Roxana Barrante Helani Galpaya, Alison Gilwald, Roxana Barrantes
11:00-11:15	Break
11:15-12:30	Session 2: Open Governance and Rights Emmanuel Lallana, Elisa Calza/Tim Davies, Carly Nyst, Robert Guerra, Nagla Rizk
12:30-1:30	Lunch
1:30-3:00	Session 3: Learning and Science Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, Gustavo Fischman, Francois Grey, Eve Gray
3:00-3:15	Break
3:15-5:00	Session 4: Open Business and IP Ronaldo Lemos, Jeremy Debeer, Sunil Abraham, Joe Karaganis

Day 2, December 12, 2012

9:00-10:45	Exploring Openness and Interdisciplinarity
10:45-11:00	Break
11:00-12:00	Exploring Openness and Interdisciplinarity
12:00-1:30	Lunch
1:30-2:45	How to Build research capacity (SIRCA) and foster innovation (SEED Alliance)?
2:45-3:00	Break
3:00-5:00	Exploring Grants + (Intro to DECI)

Day 3, December 13, 2012

9:00 - 10:45	Planning Ahead and Working Together
10:45 - 11:00	Break
11:00 - 12:00	Planning Ahead and Working Together
12:00 - 1:30	Lunch

Click to download the full details here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/i-and-n-partners-meeting-rio

Debate on Section 66A rages on

praskrishna — 2012-12-10T09:44:31Z

Last week, a reputed BPO in Chennai took down its Facebook page and introduced stricter moderation for posts on its bulletin board.

Vasudha Venugopal's article was published in the Hindu on December 10, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

The measure, an official said, was aimed at avoiding any "callous remark by any employee." "We have discussions on many raging topics here, and we are just making sure the content is clean with no intended defamation."

The need to present only ‘unobjectionable content’ is just one off-shoot of a controversy that has gripped the country after at least five persons were arrested in recent months for posting their views online. But what started as an outcry by a few voices against the IT Act has now turned into a campaign against the constitutional validity of the Act itself. Last week also saw concerted protests to demand the repeal of Section 66A of the IT Act, under which most of the accused were booked. Human chains and protests were conducted in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Guntur, Kakinada, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Kozhikode and Kannur, among others.

In the past few months, the debate on the use of Section 66A in particular, and the Act in general, has gathered momentum. The arrests of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for circulating a cartoon lampooning West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; cartoonist Aseem Trivedi; businessman Ravi Srinivasan for tweets against Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram; and the two girls in Maharashtra for criticising the bandh after Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death have sparked popular anger.

“Public anger and media attention have been so strong that the government has been forced to retreat, which is a good first step,” says Alagunambi Welkin, president of the Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu, which organised the protests in Chennai. "The next step would be to plug the loopholes in the IT Act. After all, this same government has declared in various international forums that it is all for promoting openness online."

Activists say that along with the increased pressure on the government, collecting information on cases of the misuse of the Act are the tasks that have to be fulfilled immediately. Human rights activist A. Marx, who has filed a public interest litigation petition against Section 66A, says the selective application of the law is very troubling. From a broader perspective though, this is also an issue of global proportions. Recently, a man in the U.K. was jailed for 18 months after he was found guilty of posting abusive messages on an online memorial. In July this year, a young Moroccan was arrested in Casablanca on the charge of posting “insulting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on Facebook.”

As recently as Tuesday, a Shenzen resident was arrested for posting a letter online, accusing a senior village official of corruption, and last week, a man in Kent was arrested for posting an image of a burning poppy on a social network site.

However, Pranesh Prakash, policy director, Centre For Internet And Society, Bangalore, notes that the more problematic parts in India’s laws are ones that result from adaptation. India’s own adaptation of the U.K. law, for instance, considerably increases punishment from six months to three years. However, if it is any consolation, there are voices worldwide being raised on this issue. Till last week, Google’s search page had a message: "Love the free and open Internet? Tell the world’s governments to keep it that way," and a link for comments directed to the Dubai conference, which will see a wide-ranging discussions and key decisions on global internet governance.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-sci-tech-internet-december-10-2012-vasudha-venugopal-debate-on-section-66a

What does it mean to be a digital native?

praskrishna — 2012-12-10T04:21:00Z

The war between natives and immigrants is ending. The natives have won.

Oliver Joy's blog post was published by CNN on December 8, 2012. Nishant Shah is quoted, criticising Marc Prensky's ideas of digital nativity as borne of privilege and first-world centricity.

It was a bloodless conflict fought not with bullets and spears, but with iPhones and floppy disks. Now the battle between the haves and have-nots can begin.

The post-millennial "digital native," a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky in 2001 is emerging as the globe's dominant demographic, while the "digital immigrant," becomes a relic of a previous time.

The digital native-immigrant concept describes the generational switchover where people are defined by the technological culture which they're familiar with.

Prensky defines digital natives as those born into an innate "new culture" while the digital immigrants are old-world settlers, who have lived in the analogue age and immigrated to the digital world.

Although not Luddites, the immigrants struggle more than natives to adapt to hi-tech progress.

The author of "Teaching Digital Natives," whose success pushed him onto the speaking circuit, says the explosion of technology over the last 10 years is just the start of a symbiotic new world. Computers and handsets are becoming an extension of body and mind, creating a Cyborg-like population.

Prensky cites the 100-meter runner Oscar Pistorius, an athlete with prosthetic legs, as an example of how technology is used to enhance our lives. He told CNN: "For humans, what used to be this body of flesh and bone, all that is now just the center... Being human is a moving target."

The human race and its struggle to keep up with technology

Prensky says that at no time in history has technology moved so fast. Today the latest high-tech gizmos can be passe even before hitting the shop floors.

In the past -- during the post-industrial revolution era, for example -- accelerating technology has plateaued. So, with the meteoric rise of new social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype, history suggests the world is overdue for a slowdown.

But Prensky says this time, any slowdown in the digital age is a "myth," as innovation will only press forward "faster... And faster and faster."

He told CNN: "We are not going through a transition to another faze of stability, and that is the key point. People will always be behind now and that will be a stress they have to cope with."

The new norm

Connecting with one another in the modern world requires a knack for social networking and texting, which is the norm for the digital native. But for the immigrant, it can be akin to learning a whole new language.

Prensky illustrates his point with former director of the CIA David Petraeus. In November, he was embroiled in a scandal that revealed he had an affair with Paula Broadwell.

The FBI uncovered the affair while it investigated e-mails that Broadwell allegedly sent to a Petraeus family friend, Jill Kelley.

Prensky labels this naivety by immigrants as "digital stupidity" -- by assuming that when people decide to post online or send e-mails, they believe privacy is automatically applicable.

"People get frightened by change and they should be. They need courage to face the future these days, especially those who feel left behind." Prensky said. "People adapt instinctively and humans are very good at that. The young people live in the context; the older people see the changing context and struggle."

Digital poverty

As technology filters into every corner of the globe and tech cities spring up in some unlikely places from Bangalore to Tel Aviv, a new gulf is emerging to separate the digitally savvy from the disconnected: Poverty.

In India, over two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank. But a United Nations report still says that mobile phones are more common than toilets, with nearly half of India's 1.2 billion population armed with a handset.

Nishant Shah, a director at the Centre for Internet and Society in India, told CNN that defining natives and immigrants by generation is a "serious concern." According to Shah, Prensky's views were formed from the "privileged" position of living in the U.S.

Shah added: "[Prensky's] observations may describe a generation gap that the U.S. faced, but if you transplant the same definition to other parts of the world, natives are sometimes indistinguishable from immigrants."

The real fear for Shah is the new hierarchies created by digital literacy and the class systems that will be shaped by access to digital technologies.

The call of the developing world

As mobile networks extend their reach and areas become increasingly urbanized, Western tech companies are seeking to tap markets with large populations.

Last year, Finnish phone maker Nokia released a range of smart phones targeted at consumers in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, to compete with cheaper Android devices.

But Shah argues bombarding a country with technology and infrastructure is not a rounded solution to the digital poverty problem.

India, for example, has connectivity and access in abundance, but the country continues to suffer from a generation of "digitally poor classes." He argues that simply providing the equipment does not help young people understand how that technology can better their lives without education and training.

Shah told CNN: "Just because young people have tech access in India, it doesn't make them digital natives." He added, "It creates digital outcasts -- people whose supposed problem of access to the world has been resolved."

Prensky, however, believes a "networked planet" is a sign developing nations will soon close the digital divide. Even those who don't yet have the technology still know that it exists, and will have it before long.

The world in 2020

By 2020, Prensky predicts people across the globe will be plugged into the "AORTA," -- Always On RealTime Access -- a term coined by Mark Anderson, the chief of the Strategic News Service -- specializing in technology news. A future in which people are constantly able to access information and news from anywhere on the planet.

Shah says that the works of science fiction may offer the most accurate insight into our futuristic society.

He said: "The presents that we live in, are the futures that our pasts have imagined."

"Let us hope that the technologies of the future will also be designed to protect that which is sacred, and that which is important in our own understanding of being human."

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/cnn-december-8-2012-oliver-joy-what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-digital-native

Annual Conference on Human Rights 2012

praskrishna — 2013-01-07T10:47:00Z

Malavika Jayaram participated in this conference as a panelist in this event organised by Estonia and Google.

Read the original published by Estonian Institute of Human Rights on December 9, 2012.

Monday, December 10, 2012

09:30-10:00 Registration of participants

10:00-11:00 Opening session

Welcoming remarks:	Hanno Pevkur, Minister of Social of Affairs
Presentation of the Report on Human Rights in Estonia:	Mart Nutt, MP, Member of Supervising Board of Estonian Institute of Human Rights Karin Reivart, Research Manager, Turu-uuringute AS
Moderator:	Vootele Hansen, Chairman of Estonian Institute of Human Rights

11:00 – 12:40 Session 1

Human Rights and Security: Protecting victims and providing justice

In the modern world, the vast majority of casualties in armed conflicts are civilians. How should the international community react to human rights violations in conflict zones? Could a conflict exist between the requirements of peace on the one hand and justice, on the other? How can we implement the concept of Responsibility to Protect in practice? How does the promotion of human rights influence the ability of Western nations and institutions to interact with the rest of the world?

Keynote speech:	Stephen J. Rapp, United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice.
Panelists:	Anthony Dworkin, European Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Policy Fellow Gentian Zyberi, University of Oslo, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Associate Professor Jeffrey D. Levine, United States Ambassador in Estonia
Moderator:	Riina Kionka, Head of Central Asia Division, European External Action Service; former Personal Representative for Human Rights in the area of CFSP for SG/HR

12:40 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:40 Session 2

Human Rights and the Internet: Shuting down the Internet, shuting up the world

UN Human Rights Council Resolution L13 (6 July 2012) stresses that human rights must also be guaranteed in cyberspace. There is no doubt that the Internet has become an important resource for acquiring information, disseminating points of view and creating networks. Restricting Internet freedom also poses a direct threat to human rights. The panel will discuss these threats: who wants to restrict the Internet? Why and how are they doing it? How should we respond?

Keynote speech:	Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Panelists:	Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia Thomas Zerdick, policy officer, DG Justice, European Commission Malavika Jayaram, Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, India David Mothander, Google Nordic Policy Counsel
Moderator:	Dr Katrin Merike Nyman-Metcalf, Tallinn University of Technology, member of the Council of Estonian Human Rights Centre

15:40 – 16:10 Coffee break

16:10 – 17:50 Session 3

Contemporary Human Rights Challenges in a Changing Global Balance of Power

The panel will focus on the role of human rights policy in the changing international environment. Does the shift in global power away from the West force a system based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law onto the defensive? How do we promote our values while engaging with authoritarian countries? Should human rights policy consider local needs and conditions?

Panelists:	Anna Sevortian, Director of Human Rights Watch´s Russia Office Frank Johansson, Director of Amnesty International´s Finland Office Douglas Davidson, US State Department Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues; former Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr Anja Mihr, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Associate Professor
Moderator:	Hannes Hanso, Researcher, International Centre for Defence Studies

17:50 – 18:00 Conclusions

Dr Mart Nutt, MP, Member of Supervising Board of EIHR

18:30 – 21:30 Dinner, hosted by the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves

The dinner will be the Swissôtel Tallinn (6. floor).

N.B! The organiser reserves the right to make changes in the programme and the presenters

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/estonian-institute-of-human-rights-december-9-2012-annual-conference-on-human-rights-2012

Reaction to Draft Proposal from India based on final draft ITR document of ITU

praskrishna — 2012-12-06T08:32:17Z

Reaction to Draft Proposal from India on the Proposed Amendments to the ITU’s ITR’s – November 3, 2012.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reaction-to-draft-proposal-from-india-on-final-draft-itr-document-of-itu

Links in the Chain - Volume X, issue 3

praskrishna — 2012-12-05T07:33:34Z

Digital Natives newsletter, Volume X, issue 3.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/changing-face-of-citizen-action.pdf

A Report of Odia Wikipedia Workshop at IIT, Kharagpur

praskrishna — 2012-12-05T05:20:38Z

The Samaja, Odia daily, Kolkata edition, on December 3, 2012, published an article about the Odia Wikipedia Workshop organized in IIT, Kharagpur, West Bengal.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/report-of-odia-wikipedia-workshop-in-iit-kharagpur