Centre for Internet and Society

Towards an Equitable and Just Internet

praskrishna — 2014-02-17T11:20:19Z

IT for Change is organizing an international meeting to formulate a progressive response to issues of global governance of the Internet. Bhairav Acharya will be participating in this event to be held in New Delhi on February 14 and 15.

The Internet is emerging as a central feature of contemporary human life. We use it to access and disseminate information, to communicate and build community, to transact business and to practise democracy. Ever increasing dimensions of our social, economic, cultural and political life are tied to the Internet.

However, the benefits of the Internet - knowledge and power, wealth and influence, are distributed unevenly. A technology built on the egalitarian peer-to-peer principle, ironically, is emerging as a key axis of inequality, an instrument perpetuating and reinforcing longstanding social, economic, cultural and political injustices. Snowden's dramatic exposé of a deep nexus between the US government and a few global corporations to enable global surveillance, confirmed just one aspect of the problem. The truth about the Internet and how its socio-technical architecture is being shaped is considerably more complex and insidious. The rapid colonisation of the Internet by a few monopolizing global corporations, and its governance being subject, in a highly disproportionate manner, to the laws and policy priorities of one country, impacts not just privacy, but a huge range of very important social, economic, cultural and political issues. (To a lesser extent, policy frameworks developed by clubs of rich countries like the the OCED also impact the emerging shape of the Internet.)

Questions of democracy, social justice and equity need to become central to how the Internet, and how an Internet-mediated society, are evolving. The smokescreen of technical-neutrality has prevented for too long a critical, political examination of the social underpinnings of the Internet, its normative boundaries and legalinstitutional frames. In addition, self-serving formulations like 'Multistakeholderism' and 'Internet Freedom', are employed by the status quo to maintain a facade of legitimacy. Beyond the rhetoric, it is clear that the Internet – in its dominance by the powerful, is neither genuinely multi-stakeholder nor genuinely free.

There are foundational questions to be pursued, in this regard : How is the Internet redistributing power and resources? How does this impact those at the margins, those on the peripheries of an increasingly globalised world? How is such redistribution connected to the socio-technical architecture of the Internet? What kind of Internet would promote social justice and equity? What needs to be done to make it more just, more egalitarian? Who governs the Internet, and how can its governance be democratized? From the standpoint of global justice, two urgent priorities lie ahead of us.

A progressive conception and vision of the Internet, and
A common global ownership of the Internet that protects and promotes its public-ness, and its evolution as a 'global commons'. The Internet was envisaged as a decentralized network, with control from the peripheries. This characteristic of the network is rapidly eroding, What is urgently needed is a recasting of this technical principle into a socio-political framework for a truly people-owned and people-controlled Internet, and one that works for all. The global governance of the Internet requires a proper institutionalization and legal framework incorporating the true spirit of participatory democracy. It should inter alia serve to insulate the Internet both from corporatist and from statist dominations.

An international meeting, entitled 'Towards a Just and Equitable Internet', is envisaged to address the key issues identified above. It will be held in New Delhi, India, on February 14th and 15th, 2013. The meeting will bring together actors engaged in social justice movements and ICT, communication and media rights advocacy to dialogue with some of those already engaged with Internet governance issues, with a view to chart a progressive response to issues related to global governance of the Internet.

Potential outcomes from the meeting include:

A 'charter for Internet justice and equity';
Specific proposals for democratizing the global governance of the Internet as contributions to the 'Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance' being hosted by Brazilian government in April, 2013, the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation and the WSIS + 10 process.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/towards-an-equitable-and-just-internet

Towards a Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on ‘Internet Rights, Accessibility, Regulation & Ethics’

praskrishna — 2012-05-31T07:14:42Z

This event was organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation, National Internet Exchange of India and Association for Progressive Communications at Mirza Ghalib Hall, SCOPE Complex, New Delhi from 9.00 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. on May 3, 2012. Pranesh Prakash participated as a speaker in the session on Access to Internet: Right to Information.

9.00 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. (Registration)

9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m.

Inauguration & Plenary: Internet Rights, Accessibility, Regulation & Ethics

Introduction: Osama Manzar, Founder & Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation
Chair: Aruna Roy, Head, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) & Member, National Advisory Council (NAC), Govt. of India
Co-Chair: Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, DIT, Govt. of India
Plenary Speakers:

Honey Tan, Human Rights Lawyer, Malaysia, APC
Venkatesh Nayak, Co-convener, Secretary, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information
Jitendra Kohli, Executive Member, Transparency International India Summary of the Session by the Chair

11.00 to 11.15 a.m. (Tea break)

11.15 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

Working Session I - Access to Internet: Right to Information

Chairperson: Basheerhamad Shadrach, Development Consultant
Plenary Speakers:

Pranesh Prakash, Programme Manager, Centre for Internet & Society
NA Vijayashankar, E-Business Consultant, Founder Secretary of Cyber Society of India, Founder Trustee of International Institute of Information Technology Law
Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Varsha Iyenger, Member, Centre for Law and Policy Research
Amitabh Singhal, Former CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Founding Member, Association for Democratic Reforms

12.30 p.m. to 1.30 p.m.
Working Session II - Internet Right as Human Right: Need for a Holistic Framework towards Universal Access in India

Chairperson: Dr. Govind, CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), Govt. of India
Co-chair & Moderator: R. Sukumar , Managing Editor, Live Mint Newspaper
Panel Members:

Subho Ray, President, Internet & Mobile Association of India (IMAI)
Deepak Maheshwari, Vice President - Public Policy, South Asia, MasterCard
Ravina Agarwal, Program Officer, Ford Foundation
Honey Tan, Human Rights Lawyer, Malaysia, APC
Suhas Chakma, Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights
Anoop Saha, Co-Founder, CGNet Swara
Shivam Vij, Writer, Kafila.org

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Towards a Global Network of Internet and Society Centres

praskrishna — 2013-06-05T07:29:43Z

This event was held in Istanbul by Bilgi University as part of the collaboration on Global Network of Interdisciplinary Internet and Society Research Centres.

Chinmayi Arun spoke on the Internet Governance panel at the conference on 'ICT, Law and Innovation: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Lessons Learned'.

Tough neighbourhood tests India's e-tolerance

praskrishna — 2011-06-15T10:51:48Z

The combination of having restrictive neighbours as well as security threats could make freedom on the web in India a casualty, writes Anahita Mukherji in this article published by the Times of India on June 12, 2011.

While Indians have enjoyed relatively free cyberspace, growing security threats have resulted in new laws that may tighten the screws on India's freedom on the web. This is one of the findings of a global report titled Freedom on the Net 2011.

There is a widespread fear that the lack of internet freedom in neighbouring countries, like China and Pakistan, may adversely impact India. "If restrictions are placed in certain countries, information links get weakened. Also, governments tend to copy moves of other countries when it comes to a restriction of freedom on the net," said Ketan Tanna, the India researcher for the report.

However, Sarah Cook, Asian research analyst and assistant editor for Freedom on the Net, said that while India may be in a tough neighborhood, it is also possible to seek out the "best practices from countries further afield, or even design its own, and not follow the 'worst practices' from the countries next door".

"It is ultimately up to the Indian government and people to decide how adversely they let being in a tough neighborhood impact internet freedom. It is true that there are objective threats that India faces. All of these can be used as justifications for why the government should be given wide authority to block certain content or monitor internet traffic. But in a democratic society, such needs must be balanced against citizens' rights to free expression and privacy. Ensuring transparency, accountability and legal specificity in any measures taken to restrict the free flow of information is an important way of balancing those factors," said Cook in an email interview with TOI.

Recent regulations have given the government more freedom to censor content. In 2008, Parliament passed amendments to the IT Act, which came into effect in 2009 and have expanded the government's monitoring capabilities. Two months ago, the government enforced another set of guidelines on internet usage. They make it mandatory for intermediaries (ISPs, websites, blogs etc) to notify users not to publish or use information that could be harmful, defamatory or cause annoyance in any way. If an intermediary is informed of such information by the government, it has to block it within 36 hours.

According to the new rules, content that "threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order" is entitled to a ban.

An RTI activist from The Centre for Internet and Society managed to get a list of 11 officially banned websites in India in April 2011.

Nikhil Pahwa, the founder editor of Medianama, a digital media portal, feels the new guidelines could result in a further slide in India's rank.

Read the original published in the Times of India here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-e-tolerance

TOU Training photo 3

praskrishna — 2013-06-19T07:06:36Z

Telugu Wikipedia Orientation in progress

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TOU Training photo 2

praskrishna — 2013-06-19T07:01:57Z

Rahmanuddin and Dr. Rajasekhar giving hands-on training to edit Telugu Wikipedia

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Total Advertisement Expenditure

praskrishna — 2018-04-10T01:53:19Z

Total Advertisement Expenditure

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Torsha

praskrishna — 2019-08-15T16:46:35Z

Torsha Sarkar

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Top 10 Internet

praskrishna — 2013-01-07T07:01:46Z

Top 10 Internet user Countries

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tom

praskrishna — 2011-11-24T09:36:49Z

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Token disclosures?

praskrishna — 2013-08-07T09:30:39Z

Snowden’s Xkeyscore expose makes a mockery of Twitter’s transparency revelations.

The article by Deepa Kurup was published in the Hindu on August 4, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

This week, roughly around the same time, two ‘revelations’ made headlines in the world of technology. The first, the U.S. National Security Agency’s top secret web surveillance programme, codenamed Xkeyscore, another expose from the house of Edward Snowden & Co.; and second, microblogging site Twitter’s third biannual Transparency Report for the first half of 2013.

The former exposed a global surveillance net, cast far and wide to freely (no formal authorisation required) access and mine emails, chats and browsing histories of millions. The content of the latter report not only pales in comparison but also raises fundamental questions on just how much goes on beyond the arguably modest claims made on Twitter’s transparency charts.

Documents published by The Guardian have the NSA claiming that the “widest-reaching” system mining intelligence from the web had, over a month in 2012, retrieved and stored no less than 41 billion records on its Xkeyscore servers. These mind-boggling numbers make a mockery of Twitter’s few hundred access request disclosures, advocates of online privacy and freedom point out. Then, it is hardly surprising that a large chunk of global requests came from the U.S. government: no less than 902 of the total 1,157 requests, accounting for 78 per cent. A far second is Japan at 8 per cent followed by the U.K.

India References

Interestingly, both Twitter’s report and the NSA’s Xkeyscore document have India references. While a map titled 'Where is Xkeyscore' in the training manual released showing India as one of 150 sites (hosting a total of 700 servers) indicates that India's very much on the global surveillance radar of the United States government; the fact that the India is a new entrant on Twitter's ‘Country Withheld Content Tool’ means that the government here is also making active interventions in microblogging content. This is very much in line with stances the Indian government has taken over the last year, swinging indecisively between asking internet firms to pre-screen content and asking service providers to take down what it finds offensive.

India, A Bit-Player

The Twitter report states that over the last six months it has seen an increase in the number of requests received (and eventual withholding of content) in five new countries: India, Brazil, Japan, Netherlands and Russia. In terms of numbers, India is still very much a bit player in the game given it falls under the ‘less than 10 category, a list where the number of requests for user information made by the government during this period is fewer than 10. It appears from the report that Twitter did not honour any of these requests, indicating that either the requests were too broad or failed to identify individual accounts.

In the same period, Twitter received two requests from India to remove content, one from the “government/law enforcement agency” and the other through a court order. In all, three tweets were removed by Twitter. No details on the nature of content removed were available.

Transparency Trends

A late entrant to transparency initiatives, Twitter's bi-annual reports have been applauded by privacy activists as an initiative that at least attempted to offer a glimpse into the otherwise opaque medium/industry. According to 'Who Has Your Back' an initiative by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which tracks which corporate helps protect your data from the government, only a third of the 18 internet majors publish Transparency Reports – in fact, Facebook, WordPress and Tumblr all don't publish.

This article by Deepa Kurup was published in the Hindu on August 4, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

While it's definitely good that Twitter's providing data for India, post-Edward Snowden and his revealing PRISM leaks, netizens would question to what extent this data is representative of the magnitude or extent of user data tracking. Do governments like the U.S. need to approach Twitter (or other internet service providers) at all to access detailed user activity logs, content and metadata?

Secret Orders Excluded

Twitter makes it clear that its current report does not include "secret orders" or FISA disclosures. In another blog related to the Transparency Report, Jeremy Kessel, Manager, Legal Policy at Twitter Inc, writes that since 2012, Twitter's seen an uptick in requests to withhold content from two to seven countries. He writes that while Twitter wants to publish “numbers of national security requests – including FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) disclosures – separately from non-secret requests.” It claims it has “insisted” that the United States government allow for increased transparency into “secret orders”. “We believe it’s important to be able to publish numbers of national security requests – including FISA disclosures – separately from non-secret requests." Unfortunately, we are still not able to include such metrics, Twitter states.

'Not the Whole Truth'

In the absence of these metrics, Sunil Abraham, director of Centre for Internet and Society, feels transparency reports “may not tell us the whole truth”. The Xkeyscore revelations then may explain why the U.S. government has made only 902 information requests. “A rogramme like XKeyScore potentially allows them to capture the very same data without having to approach Twitter. This is the very same imperative behind the CMS project in India. Governments across the world want to automate private sector involvement in blanket surveillance measures so that it wont serve as a check on their unbridled appetite for data”

He warns that there's a likely “race to the bottom”, given that an unintended consequence of transparency may be that governments, rather than being shamed into respect for free speech and privacy, would be emboldened by the scale of surveillance and censorship in the so-called democracies such as the US and EU members that are on top of the global blanket surveillance game.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-august-4-2013-deepa-kurup-token-disclosures

TOI literary festival kicks off today

praskrishna — 2015-02-05T15:37:21Z

The Times Litfest 2015, Bengaluru, kicks off on Saturday at the Jayamahal Palace Hotel. The two-day festival is among the biggest such literary enclaves in Bengaluru. It'll see some of India's foremost creative minds talk, argue, debate, discuss and engage with vital topics which touch our lives.

Over two busy days, achievers from every field will talk about reading, writing, culture, journalism, food, comedy, sport, films and much, much more. Speakers on Day 1 include historian Ramachandra Guha, NR Narayana Murthy and Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl, star chef Manu Chandra, and comedians Radhika Vaz and Rubi Chakravarti.

It's not all fun and games. Our serious sessions include Raghavendra Joshi talking about his father Bhimsen Joshi's legacy; Rohan Murty (founder of the Murty Classical Library), author and historian Vikram Sampath and translator Arunava Sinha on preserving our cultural heritage; and Pranesh Prakash of Centre for Internet and Society, Lawrence Liang of Alternative Law Forum, and author and journalist Vivek Kaul on internet censorship and net neutrality.

Read the full coverage on the Times of India newspaper here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-january-31-2015-toi-literary-kicks-off-today

TOI

praskrishna — 2010-11-30T05:48:15Z

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To embed a tweet or not?

praskrishna — 2016-09-23T01:08:13Z

Experts say it would amount to copyright infringement if the fair use clause is exploited.

The article by Vidhi Choudhary was published by Livemint on September 23, 2016. Vidhushi Marda was quoted.

On 20 September, a user on Twitter put out details of her intriguing conversation with the driver of a leading cab hailing service that she had used. Simply put, their conversation led to the revelation of a possible scam with a direct competitor of the said cab service.

The subject of the detailed chat easily had the makings of an investigative story and, therefore, a digital news website in India reproduced the string of tweets put out by the user in the form of a story on its platform.

This was done without her consent and hence the user asked the digital platform to take that story down.

In the light of this episode, let’s take a look at the laws governing such a situation. The question is, does the use of the tweet by the digital news website amount to copyright infringement or not? Or, whether Twitter is liable or not?

As it turns out, Twitter has a safety net within the terms of service that a user must agree to before they sign up onto the platform. A company spokesperson confirmed that Twitter was not liable if a user’s Tweet is used by someone else. “On the issue of consent, one (individual/organization) needs to take consent from the other user before using his\her tweets,” the spokesperson said.

Media lawyer Apar Gupta agreed and said that Twitter’s terms of service clearly state a clause in favour of the platform which means it is not legally liable in the above mentioned situation. “They have a worldwide, irrevocable license to publish content on their platform, which is also provided for third party affiliates,” said Gupta.

The next question is whether a user’s tweet published by someone else amounts to copyright infringement.

“The law that’s applicable in such a situation is the Copyright Act. For the purpose of reportage you can path your use within the fair dealing section (52) of the Copyright Act. Secondly, if the content used was a work of literary nature and creative, it would be up for copyright protection, just a mere Twitter rant or factual statements might not be that plausible,” said Anubha Sinha, program officer, at Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

Both Gupta and Sinha agreed that the ownership of the tweet rests with the user and only the user. “It would amount to copyright infringement if the fair use clause is exploited,” said Gupta.

To be sure, globally, too, media has been grappling with the issue. In a September 2013 article published on leading media platform, Poynter stated, “The legal rights to re-use content really only extend to Twitter, its official partners and anyone pulling tweet data through the Twitter API. So if you embed a tweet using the official Twitter-provided embed code, you should be fine. However, if you just copy and paste the text of a bunch of tweets, or download a Twitter photo and upload it to your own CMS, you may be on shakier ground. The “fair use” exceptions to copyright may still protect you depending on the circumstances, but you might have to prove it.”

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/livemint-september-23-2016-vidhi-choudhary-to-embed-a-tweet-or-not

Tito

praskrishna — 2019-09-22T11:51:31Z

Tito Dutt

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