The Centre for Internet and Society
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Who Owns Your Phone?
https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-september-18-2016-who-owns-your-phone
<b>The capacity of companies to defy standards that work tells an alarming story of what we lose when we lose control of our devices.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/who-owns-your-phone-3035925/">published in Indian Express</a> on September 18, 2016.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have a conflicted relationship with our digital devices. On the one hand, everything we own is cutting-edge — your regular smartphone does computation that is more advanced and powerful than the computers currently functioning on the space probe on Mars. On the other, everything that we own, is almost on the verge of becoming old — by the time you are used to your phone, a new model with a different letter or a number is in the market. The TV screen which was the crowning glory of your house now feels old because it is not thin enough, sleek enough or big enough; waiting to be replaced by the Next Big Thing.<br /><br />Strangely, the Next Big Thing is never really big enough for it to have longevity. The next phone that you buy, the new laptop you covet, the app that you update, will already feel temporary. Patricia Fitzpatrick, a historian of new media, calls this phenomenon “Planned Obsolescence”. It means that private corporations think of their digital products as fast-moving and ready to die. They might sell the phone with a 10-year guarantee, but the only guarantee that exists is that in 10 years, they will have discontinued all support for that phone, and you will have forgotten that you owned that device. Planned Obsole-scence is a marketing strategy, where everything that is introduced as a technological innovation has a limited shelf-life and is made to be replaced by something new.<br /><br />What is interesting about this strategy is that it doesn’t mean that your device has become redundant. In fact, even as you desire the new, you know perfectly well that your existing device has many years of functionality. Hence, the companies often produce the new as path-breaking, innovative and futuristic. They want you to feel primitive or out-of-touch by introducing features that you don’t need, transforming the familiar and the habitual device with something that becomes alien, enchanting and mystical.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><iframe frameborder="0" height="260" scrolling="auto" src="http://content.jwplatform.com/players/faRwxnwA-xe0BVfqu.html" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While planned obsolescence has its value — it propels innovation and pushes at the boundary of what is possible — it also needs to be understood as a marketing strategy that keeps us consuming as part of our digital habits. One of the best examples to understand this trend is Apple’s latest announcement that it has removed the standard earphone jack from its new iPhone7 and is presenting us with wireless earplugs that work with the new phone. Apple insists that this is the future, and in its hyperbolic presentation, announced that by removing one of the most enduring industry standard for audio hardware, they are revolutionising the future of music listening.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This comes particularly as a shock because ever since the 1990s, Apple’s iconic presence in the music industry has been the white dangling ear-bud wire against black silhouettes, marking the Apple music device as a sign of privacy, maturity, creativity, and elite affordability. By replacing recognisable image with a new one is the company’s way of signalling that every Apple device you now own is ready for trash. It is letting you know that your older Apple music player now needs to be replaced by a new one that uses the wireless ear buds. That the only way you can now listen to music on an Apple iPhone is on Apple’s own standards, so that the regular industry hardware will no longer work with this unique phone that eschews universal standards and seeks to create private monopolies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The missing headphone jack in the iPhone 7 is a resounding testimony to what happens when we make our digital hardware subject to closed development and production. Instead of building phones that are more durable, more efficient, more connected, more affordable, and more versatile, Apple just showed us how a private company can arrogantly define the future, by turning almost every existing device into “primitive” or “incompatible” with the new phones that it is making. The capacity of companies like Apple to defy standards that work and build their own unique hardware tells an alarming story of what we lose when we lose control of our devices. The digital cultures scholar Wendy Chun had once sagaciously written, “the more our devices turn transparent, the more opaque they become”. And Apple’s move towards making your new iPhone seamless and without holes, mimics how the phone is being designed to both kill fast and die early, promoting corporate ambitions over public interest.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-september-18-2016-who-owns-your-phone'>https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-september-18-2016-who-owns-your-phone</a>
</p>
No publishernishantDigital GovernanceResearchDigital MediaRAW ResearchResearchers at Work2016-09-18T16:18:35ZBlog EntryWhatsApps with fireworks, apps with diyas: Why Diwali needs to go beyond digital
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-indian-express-nishant-shah-november-22-2015-whatsapps-with-fireworks-apps-with-diyas-why-diwali-needs-to-go-beyond-digital
<b>The idea of a 'digital' Diwali reduces our social relationships to a ledger of give and take. The last fortnight, I have been bombarded with advertisements selling the idea of a “Digital Diwali”. We have become so used to the idea that everything that is digital is modern, better and more efficient.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/whatsapps-with-fireworks-apps-with-diyas-why-diwali-needs-to-go-beyond-digital/">published in the Indian Express</a> on November 22, 2015.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">I have WhatsApp messages with exploding fireworks, singing greeting cards that chant mystic sounding messages, an app that turns my smartphone into a flickering diya, another app that remotely controls the imitation LED candles on my windows, an invitation to Skype in for a puja at a friend’s house 3,000 km away, and the surfeit of last minute shopping deals, each one offering a dhamaka of discounts.<br /><br />However, to me, the digitality of Diwali is beyond the surface level of seductive screens and one-click shopping, or messages of love and apps of light. Think of Diwali as sharing the fundamental logic that governs the digital — the logic of counting. As we explode with joy this festive season, we count our blessings, our loved ones, the gifts and presents that we exchange. If we are on the new Fitbit trend, we count the calories we consume and burn as we make our way through parties where it is important to see and be seen, compare and contrast, connect with all the people who could be thought of as friends, followers, connectors, or connections.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While there is no denying that there is a sociality that the festival brings in, there is also a cruel algebra of counting that comes along with it. It is no surprise that as we celebrate the victory of good over evil and right over wrong, we also simultaneously bow our heads to the goddess of wealth in this season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Look beyond the glossy surface of Diwali festivities, and you realise that it is exactly like the digital. Digital is about counting. It is right there in the name — digits refers to numbers. Or digits refer to fingers — these counting appendages which we can manipulate and flex in order to achieve desired results. At the core of digital systems is the logic of counting, and counting, as anybody will tell us, is not a benign process. What gets counted, gets accounted for, thus producing a ledger of give and take which often becomes the measure of our social relationships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I remember, as a child, my mother meticulously making a note of every gift or envelope filled with money that ever came our way from the relatives, so that there would be precise and exact reciprocation. I am certain that there is now an app which can keep a track of these exchanges. I am not suggesting that these occasions of gifting are merely mercenary, but they are embodiments of finely calibrated values and worth of relationships defined by proximity, intimacy, hierarchy and distance. The digital produces and works on a similar algorithm, which is often as inscrutable and opaque as the unspoken codes of the Diwali ledger.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is something else that happens with counting. The only things that can have value are things that have value. I don’t know which ledger counts the coming together of my very distributed family for an evening of chatting, talking, sharing lives and laughter. I don’t know how anybody would reciprocate that one late night when a cousin came to our home and spent hours with my younger brother making a rangoli to surprise the rest of us. I have no idea how they will ever reciprocate gifts that one of the younger kids made at school for all the members of the family.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Diwali is about the things, but like the digital system, these are things that cannot be counted. And within the digital system, things that cannot be counted are things that get discounted. They become unimportant. They become noise, or rubbish. Our social networks are counting systems that might notice the low frequency of my connections with my extended family but they cannot quantify the joy I hear in the voice of my grandmother when I call her from a different time-zone to catch up with her. Digital systems can only deal with things with value and not their worth.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I do want to remind myself that there is more to this occasion than merely counting. And for once, I want to go beyond the digital, where my memories of the past and the expectations of the future are not shaped by the digital systems of counting and quantifying. Instead, I want Diwali to be analogue. I shall still be mediating my collectivity with the promises of connectivity, but I want to think of this moment as beyond the logics and logistics of counting that codify our social transactions and take such a central location in our personal functioning. This Diwali, I am rooting for a post-digital Diwali, that accounts for all those things that cannot be counted, but are sometimes the only things that really count.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-indian-express-nishant-shah-november-22-2015-whatsapps-with-fireworks-apps-with-diyas-why-diwali-needs-to-go-beyond-digital'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-indian-express-nishant-shah-november-22-2015-whatsapps-with-fireworks-apps-with-diyas-why-diwali-needs-to-go-beyond-digital</a>
</p>
No publishernishantDigital MediaInternet Governance2015-11-23T13:27:37ZBlog EntryUN Special Rapporteur Report on Freedom of Expression and the Private Sector: A Significant Step Forward
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-special-rapporteur-report-on-freedom-of-expression-and-the-private-sector-a-significant-step-forward
<b>On 6 June 2016, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, released a report on the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) sector and freedom of expression in the digital age. Vidushi Marda and Pranesh Prakash highlight the most important aspects of the report.</b>
<h2 dir="ltr">Background</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Today, the private sector is more closely linked to the freedom of expression than it has ever been before. The ability to speak to a mass audience was at one time a privilege restricted to those who had access to mass media. However, with digital technologies, that privilege is available to far more people than was ever possible in the pre-digital era. As private content created on these digital networks is becoming increasingly subject to state regulation, it is crucial to examine the role of the private sector in respect of the freedom of speech and expression.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The first foray by the Special Rapporteur into this broad area has resulted in a sweeping report, that covers almost every aspect of freedom of expression within the ICT sector, except competition which we will elaborate on later in this post.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Introduction</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The report aims to “provide guidance on how private actors should protect and promote freedom of expression in a digital age”. It identifies the relevant international legal framework as Article 19 of the <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20999/volume-999-I-14668-English.pdf">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, and Article 19 of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>. The UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and Guiding Principles, also known as the <a href="http://business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/reports-and-materials/Ruggie-report-7-Apr-2008.pdf">Ruggie Principles</a> provide the framework for private sector responsibilities on business and human rights.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The report categorises different roles of the private sector in organising, accessing, regulating and populating the internet. This is important because the manner in which the ICT sector affects the freedom of expression is far more complicated than traditional communication industries. The report identifies the distinct impact of internet service providers, hardware and software companies, domain name registries and registrars, search engines, platforms, web hosting services, platforms, data brokers and e-commerce facilities on the freedom of expression.</p>
<h2>Legal and Policy Issues</h2>
<div>The Special Rapporteur discusses four distinct legal and policy issues that find relevance in respect of this problem statement: Content Regulation, Surveillance and Digital Security, Transparency and Remedies.</div>
<div> </div>
<h3>Content Regulation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">The report identifies two main channels through which content regulation takes place: the state, and internal processes.</p>
<p>Noting that digital content made on private networks is increasingly subject to State regulation, the report highlights the competing interests of intermediaries who manage platforms and States which demand for regulation of this content on grounds of defamation, blasphemy, protection of national security etc. This tension is demonstrated through vague laws that compel individuals and private corporations to over-comply and err on the side of caution “in order to avoid onerous penalties, filtering content of uncertain legal status and engaging in other modes of censorship and self-censorship.” Excessive intermediary liability forces intermediaries to over-comply with requests in order to ensure that local access to their platforms are not blocked. States attempt at regulating content outside the law through extra legal restrictions, and push private actors to take down content on their own initiative. Filtering content is another method, wherein States block and filter content through the private sector. Government blacklists, illegal content and suspended accounts are methods employed, and these have sometimes raised concerns of necessity and proportionality. <a href="http://scroll.in/article/807277/whatsapp-in-kashmir-when-big-brother-wants-to-go-beyond-watching-you">Network or service shutdowns</a> are classified as a “particularly pernicious” method of content regulation. Non neutral networks also are a method of content regulation with the possibilities of internet service providers throttling traffic. Zero rating is a potential issue, although the report acknowledges that “it remains a subject of debate whether they may be permissible in areas genuinely lacking Internet access”.</p>
<p>The other node of content regulation has been identified as internal policies and practices of the private sector. <a href="https://consentofthenetworked.com/author/rebeccamackinnon/">Terms of service</a> restrictions are often tailored to the jurisdiction’s laws and policies and don’t always address the needs and interests of vulnerable groups. Further, the report notes, <a href="http://www.catchnews.com/tech-news/facebook-free-basics-gatekeeping-powers-extend-to-manipulating-public-discourse-1452077063.html">design and engineering choices</a> of how private players choose to curate content are algorithmically determined and increasingly control the information that we consume. </p>
<h3>Transparency</h3>
<div> The report notes that transparency enables those entities subject to internet regulation to take informed decisions about their responsibilities and liabilities in a digital sphere and points out, that there is a severe lack of transparency about government requests to restrict or remove content. Some states even prohibit the publication of such information, with India being one example. In respect of the private sector, content hosting platforms sometimes at least reveal the circumstances under which content is removed due to a government request, although this is rather erratic. The report recognises the need to balance transparency with competing concerns like security and trade secrecy, and this is a matter of continued debate.</div>
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<h3 dir="ltr">Surveillance and Digital Security</h3>
<p>Freedom of expression concerns arise as data transmitted on private networks is gradually being subjected to surveillance and interference from the State and private actors. The report finds that several internet companies have reported an increase in government requests for customer data and user information. According to the Special Rapporteur, effective resistance strategies include inclusion of human rights guarantees, restrictively interpreting government requests negotiations. Private players also make surveillance and censorship equipment that enable States to intercept communications. Covert surveillance has been previously reported, with States tapping into communications as and when necessary. When private entities become aware of interception and covert surveillance, their human rights responsibilities arise. As private entities work towards enhancing encryption, anonymity and user security, states respond by <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/29/apple-vs-fbi-all-you-need-to-know.html">compelling companies</a> to create loopholes for them to circumvent such privacy and security enhancing technology.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Remedies</h3>
<p>Unlawful content removal, opaque suspensions, data security breaches are commonplace occurrences in the digital sphere. The ICCPR guarantees that all people whose rights have been violated must have an effective remedy, and similarly, the Ruggie principles require that remedial and grievance mechanisms must be provided by corporations. There is some ambiguity on how these complaint or appeal mechanisms should be designed and implemented, and the nature and structure of these mechanisms is also unclear. The report states that it is necessary to investigate the role of the state in supplementing/regulating corporate mechanisms, its role in ensuring that there is a mechanism for remedies, and its responsibility to make sure that more easily and financially accessible alternatives exist for remedial measures.<br /><br /></p>
<h2> Special Rapporteur’s priorities for future work and thematic developments</h2>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Investigating laws, policies and extralegal measures that equip governments to impose restrictions on the provision of telecommunications and internet services. Examining the responsibility of companies to respond in a way that respects human rights, mitigates harm, and provides avenues for redress.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Evaluating content restrictions under terms of service and community standards. Private actors face substantial pressure from governments and individuals to restrict expression, and a priority is to evaluate the interplay of private and state actions on freedom of expression in light of human rights obligations and responsibilities.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Focusing on the legitimacy of rationales for intermediary liability for content hosting, restrictions, conditions for removing third party content.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Exploring censorship and surveillance within the human rights framework, and encouraging greater scrutiny before using these technologies for purposes that undermine the freedom of expression.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Identifying ways to balance an increasing scope of freedom of expression with the need to address governmental interests in national security and public order.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Internet access - Future work will explore issues around access and private sector engagement and investment in ensuring affordability and accessibility, particularly considering marginalized groups.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Internet governance - Internet governance frameworks and reform efforts are sensitive to the needs of women, sexual minorities and other vulnerable communities. Throughout this future work, the Special Rapporteur will pay particular attention to legal developments (legislative, regulatory, and judicial) at national and regional levels.</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<h2>Conclusions and Recommendations</h2>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">States: The report recommends that states should not pressurise the private sector to interfere with the freedom of speech and expression in a manner that does not meet the condition of necessary and proportionate principles. Any request to take down content or access customer information must be based on validly enacted law, subject to oversight, and demonstrate necessary and proportionate means of achieving the aims laid down in Article 19(3) of the ICCPR.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Private Actors: The Special Rapporteur recommends that private actors develop and implement transparent human rights assessment procedures, and develop policies keeping in mind their human rights impact. Apart from this, private entities should integrate commitments to the freedom of expression into internal processes and ensure the “greatest possible transparency”.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">International Organisations: The report recommends that organisations make resources and educational material on internet governance publicly accessible. The Special Rapporteur also recommends encouraging meaningful civil society participation in multi-stakeholder policy making and standard setting processes, with an increased focus on sensitivity to human rights.</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<h2>CIS Comments</h2>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">CIS strongly agrees with the expansion of the Special Rapporteur’s scope that this report represents. He is no longer looking solely at states but at the private sector too.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">CIS also notes that competition is an important aspect of the freedom of expression, but has not been discussed in this report. Viable alternatives to platforms, networks, internet service providers etc., will ensure a healthy, competitive marketplace, and will have a positive impact in resolving the issues identified above.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Our <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/intermediary-liability-in-india.pdf/view">work</a> has called for maintaining a balanced approach to liability of intermediaries for their users’ actions, since excessive liability or strict liability would lead to over-caution and removal of legitimate speech, while having no liability at all would make it difficult to act effectively against harmful speech, e.g., revenge porn.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">CIS’ work</a> on network neutrality has highlighted the importance of neutrality for freedom of speech, and has advocated for an evidence-based approach that ensures there is neither under-regulation, nor over-regulation. The Special Rapporteur suggests that ‘Zero-Rating’ practices always violate Net Neutrality, but the majority of the definitions of Net Neutrality proposed by academics and followed by regulators across the world often do not include Zero-Rating. Similarly, he suggests that the main exception for Zero-Rating is for areas genuinely lacking access to the Internet, whereas the potential for some forms of Zero-Rating to further freedom of expression, especially of minorities, even in areas with access to the Internet, provides sufficient reason for the issue to merit greater debate.</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>(Pranesh Prakash was invited by the Special Rapporteur to provide his views and took part in a meeting that contributed to this report)</div>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-special-rapporteur-report-on-freedom-of-expression-and-the-private-sector-a-significant-step-forward'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-special-rapporteur-report-on-freedom-of-expression-and-the-private-sector-a-significant-step-forward</a>
</p>
No publishervidushiFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceUNHRCDigital MediaIntermediary LiabilityICT2016-06-08T17:27:22ZBlog EntryUN Questionnaire on Digital Innovation, Technologies and Right to Health
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-questionnaire-digital-innovation-technologies-right-to-health
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) contributed to the questionnaire put out by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on digital innovation, technologies and the right to health. The responses were authored by Pahlavi and Shweta Mohandas, and edited by Indumathi Manohar. </b>
<h3 style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/United.png" alt="United" class="image-inline" title="United" /></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center; "><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span><b>Questionnaire</b></span></span></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br /><b>1. What are benefits of increased use of digital technologies in the planning and delivery of health information, services and care? Consider the use of digital technologies for healthcare services, the collection and use of health-related data, the rise of social media and mobile phones, and the use of artificial intelligence specifically to plan and deliver healthcare. Please share examples of how such technologies benefited specific groups. How have digital technologies contributed to availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of healthcare? Has the use of artificial intelligence improved access to health information, services and care? Please comment on existing or emerging biases in health information, services and care.</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The use of digital technologies and forms of digital health interventions has seen an increase in interest from governments, industries, as well as individuals since the beginning of the pandemic. The lockdowns, and other social distancing measures created a push towards telemedicine and online consultations. Digital health services provide a number of people the opportunity to seek medical help without traveling, which particularly help people with accessibility needs, the elderly, and anyone else that has difficulty in movement.1 Telemedicine can also help meet the challenges of healthcare delivery to rural and remote areas, in addition to serving as a means of training and education.2</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The pandemic brought about a push towards telehealth and telemedicine and the telemedicine market has been reported to touch $5.4 Bn by 2025,3 with a number of applications working to make it more accessible to people in India. With respect to AI there has been some adoption of AI in India to help the most vulnerable group of people. For example: Microsoft has teamed up with the Government of Telangana to use cloud-based analytics for the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram program by adopting MINE (Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare), an AI platform to reduce avoidable blindness in children.4 Similarly Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) in Bengaluru, Karnataka is harnessing technology to make solutions for TB detection from chest x-rays, and a software solution (Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring) to identify and manage high-risk pregnancies.5 More recently IWill by ePsyClinic, a mental-health platform in India, has received a grant from Microsoft's 'AI for Accessibility' program to accelerate the building of a Hindi-based AI Mental Health conversational program.6</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However the use of digital technologies and online medical interventions has also widened the increasing gap between those who can afford a smart phone and internet and those who cannot. A digital-only health intervention also results in excluding a wide number of people who do not have a smartphone, for example the Indian contact-tracing app, Aarogya Setu, which was a mandatory download to access public places during the lockdown was initially only available via a smartphone. Additionally, the app initially was not compatible with screen readers.7 The disparities in digital access and infrastructure is not limited to individuals— a report by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology India highlighted that the government hospitals and dispensaries have very little ICT infrastructure with only some major public hospitals having computers and connectivity.8</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As stated above, the adoption of digital health technologies is not uniform around the world, and the people who are not able to access these technologies missed being included in the data that is being collected by these systems, further excluding from the data set which might be used to train future interventions. In the same light, digital technologies such as AI based screening are based on historical data that have been proved to contain biases against</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">marginalised communities. Continuing to use these systems without addressing these biases and or including more diverse dataset results in the same people being marginalised and misdiagnosed further. For example, safety apps where data is provided by limited people could identify Dalit and Muslim areas as unsafe, reflecting the prejudices of the app’s middleand upper-class users.9 While this has not been revealed in healthcare apps, the growing use of CCTVs and subsequent use of facial recognition in only certain pockets of the city reveal the historical biases in the police system that lead to targeted surveillance.10</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>2. How has the rise of web platforms and social media increased access to health information and services, or conversely, increased risk of misdiagnosis or other harms? Please share examples of ways in which social media and web platforms facilitated innovation in access to evidence-based health information and services, or created new threats of discrimination, mental health harms, or online or offline violence.</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Social media platforms have helped people immensely during the pandemic. For example, when people reached out to strangers for help for hospital beds and oxygen. However, the benefits of such were limited to people who were on social media and had the reach and networks to share such information.11Furthermore, social media and messaging apps such as Whatsapp also led to the spread of misinformation during the pandemic. For example a Whatsapp message claiming to be from the Ministry of Aayush which permitted homeopathy doctors to treat Covid19 spread significantly, leading to the official government channels clarifying that it is fake and cautioning people against it.12 It was also noted that at times when women shared requests for beds or oxygen during covid on social media, they were faced with fake calls, stalking and trolling on social media, making it harder for them to seek help.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>3. How has the right to privacy been impacted by the use of digital technologies for health? Please share examples of ways in which data gathered from digital technologies have been used by States, commercial entities or other third parties to either benefit or harm groups regarding the right to health.</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2006, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was approved by the Indian State wherein a massive infrastructure was developed to reach the remotest corners and facilitate easy access of government services efficiently at affordable costs.13There has been a paradigm shift in the Indian state’s governance strategy, with severe implications for privacy and inclusion. However, this shift has been undertaken primarily through a series of administrative orders with no real legislative mandate and minimal judicial oversight. This digitisation began with services such as taxation, land record, passport details, but it soon extended its ambit, and it now covers most services for which the citizen is dependent upon the state— the latest being digital health.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the Indian context, there have been a number of policies that have been published which dealt with digital health. The policies looked at creating a digital health ID, digitisation of health data, and the management of health data. However these policies are being introduced without the existence of a comprehensive data protection legislation. While there are certain safeguards mentioned in each policy, without privacy and data protection legislation it is impossible to ensure compliance and the rights of the data owners. This issue became a reality when during the vaccination for Covid, some vaccination centres created Health ID for people without their consent.14</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>4. What are current strengths or weaknesses of digital health governance at national, regional and global levels? Please provide examples of laws, regulations or other safeguards that has been put in place to protect and fulfill the rights to health, privacy, and confidentiality within the use of digital technologies for health? Do restrictive laws or law enforcement create any specific challenges for persons using digital technologies to access health information or services?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digitisation of the healthcare system in India had started prior to the pandemic. However, the pandemic also saw a slew of digitisation policies being rolled out, the most notable being the National Digital Health Mission (re-designed as the Aayushman Bharat Digital Mission) which empowered and saw the government use the vaccination process to generate Health IDs for citizens, in several reported cases without their knowledge or consent.15 The entire digitisation process has been undertaken in the absence of any legislative mandate or judicial oversight. It has primarily been undertaken through issuance of executive notifications and resulting in absent or inadequate grievance redressal mechanisms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The rollout of the NDHM also saw health IDs being generated for citizens. In several reported cases across states, this rollout happened during the Covid-19 vaccination process— without the informed consent of the concerned person. All of these developments took place in the absence of a data protection law and a law regulating the digital health sphere, raising critical concerns around citizens’ privacy and the governance and oversight mechanisms for digital health initiatives.</p>
<hr />
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> Valdez, R. S., Rogers, C. C., Claypool, H., Trieshmann, L., Frye, O., Wellbeloved-Stone, C., & Kushalnagar, P. (2021). Ensuring full participation of people with disabilities in an era of telehealth. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(2), 389-392.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Paul, Hickok, Sinha, & Tiwari. (2018). Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Industry in India. Centre for Internet and Society India. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ai-and-healthcare-report/view</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Dayalani, V., K., H., S., G., R., T., & M., L. (2021, February 15). 1mg Rises In Indian Telemedicine Space As Sector Set To Touch $5.4 Bn Market Size by 2025. Inc42 Media. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://inc42.com/datalab/telemedicine-a-post-covid-reality-in-india/</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Government of Telangana adopts Microsoft Cloud and becomes the first state to use Artificial Intelligence for eye care screening for children - Microsoft Stories India. (2017, August 3). Microsoft Stories India. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/governmenttelangana-adopts-microsoft-cloud-becomes-first-state-use-articial-intelligence-eye-care-screeningchildren/</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">D’Monte, L. (2017, February 15). <i>How Philips is using AI to transform healthcare</i>. Mint. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.livemint.com/Science/yxgekz1jJJ3smvvRLwmaAL/How-Philips-is-using-AI-to-transformhealthcare.html</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">PTI. (2022, November 11). Microsoft supports IWill with “AI for Accessibility” grant to develop AI CBT mental health program for 615 million Hindi users. Microsoft Supports IWill With “AI for Accessibility”Grant to Develop AI CBT Mental Health Program for 615 Million Hindi Users. Retrieved November 15,2022, from https://www.ptinews.com/pti/Microsoft-supports-IWill-with--AI-for-Accessibility--grant-todevelop-AI-CBT-mental-health-program-for-615-million-Hindi-users/58238.html</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Nath. (2020, May 2). <i>Coronavirus | Mandatory Aarogya Setu app not accessible to persons with disabilities</i>.Coronavirus | Mandatory Aarogya Setu App Not Accessible to Persons With Disabilities - the Hindu. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-mandatory-aarogya-setu-app-notaccessible-to-persons-with-disabilities/article31489933.ece</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Sharma, N. C. (2018, July 16). <i>Adoption of e-medical records facing infra hurdles: Report</i>. Mint. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.livemint.com/Politics/CucBmKaoWLZuSf1Y9VaafM/Adoption-of-emedical-recordsfacing-infra-hurdles-Report.html</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">https://www.livemint.com/news/world/ai-algorithms-far-from-neutral-in-india-11613617957200.html</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Vipra. (n.d.). <i>The Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Policing in Delhi</i>. Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/research/the-use-of-facial-recognition-technology-for-policingin-delhi/</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Kalra, A., & Ghoshal, D. (2021, April 21). Twitter becomes a platform of hope amid the despair of India’s COVID crisis. Reuters. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/world/india/twitterbecomes- platform-hope-amid-despair-indias-covid-crisis-2021-04-21/</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Times of India . (2020, April 29). WhatsApp message on Homeopathy and coronavirus treatment is fake- Times of India. The Times of India. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://timesondia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/whatsapp-message-on-homeopathy-and-coronavirustreatment-is-fake/articleshow/75425274.cms</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Amber Sinha, Pallavi Bedi and Amber Sinha, “Techno-Solutinist Responses to Covid 19”, EPW, Vol LVI, No. 29, July 17, 2021 Retrieved from: https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/29/commentary/technosolutionist-responses-covid-19.html</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Rana, C. (2021, October 1). <i>COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries were assigned unique health IDs without their consent</i>.The Caravan. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://caravanmagazine.in/health/covid-19-vaccinebeneficiaries-were-assigned-unique-health-ids-without-their-consent</li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-questionnaire-digital-innovation-technologies-right-to-health'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/un-questionnaire-digital-innovation-technologies-right-to-health</a>
</p>
No publisherPahlavi and Shweta MohandasDigital MediaDigital TechnologiesInternet GovernanceDigital Governance2022-11-21T16:10:06ZBlog EntryThe Zen of Pad.ma: 10 Lessons Learned from Running Open Access Online Video Archives in India and beyond
https://cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma
<b>Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, the co-initiators of, and the artists/programmers behind the pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive) project will deliver a lecture at CIS on Wednesday, February 03, 6 pm, on their experiences of learnings from running open access online video archives in Germany, India, and Turkey. Please join us for coffee and vada at 5:30 pm.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-pad-ma-10-lessons-learned-from-running-open-access-online-video-archives-in-india-and-beyond/leadImage" alt="The Zen of Pad.ma - Lecture by Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, Feb 03, 6 pm" />
<p> </p>
<h2>The Zen of Pad.ma</h2>
<p>Eight years after the launch of Pad.ma and three years since the inception of Indiancine.ma, Sebastian Lütgert will take a closer look at some of the strategies -- decisions and decision making processes, foundational principles and accidental discoveries -- that may have helped make these projects sustainable. While most of the lessons begin with concrete questions related to software and technology, most of them will end up pointing beyond that: towards a general theory of collaboration, towards strategies against premature separation of labor, and towards a few practical proposals for successful self-organization on the Internet.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Biographies</h2>
<p><strong>Sebastian Lütgert</strong>, media artist, programmer, filmmaker and writer, lives and works in Berlin. Co-founder of Bootlab, textz.com, Pirate Cinema Berlin, Pad.ma and Indiancine.ma. Lecturer at the Academy of the Sciences in Berlin, various publications on cinema, copyright, radical subcultures and the politics of technology.</p>
<p><strong>Jan Gerber</strong>, video artist and softwate developer, lives and works in Berlin. Co-initiator of Pirate Cinema Berlin, Pad.ma and Indiancine.ma, author of numerous Open Source software projects, most recently Open Media Library. Involved in a variety of open-access archive projects around the world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma'>https://cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppPracticeDigital HumanitiesDigital MediaOpen AccessResearchers at WorkEventArchives2016-01-28T08:25:18ZEventTalk on Game Studies by Dr. Souvik Mukherjee, July 28, 6 pm
https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm
<b>This talk will explore the story-telling aspects of game studies and how it relates to discussions of other digital media, Internet cultures and also traditional Humanities. As an introduction, it also aims to open up discussions for Game Studies in India.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://cis-india.org/home-images/call-of-duty-no-russian" alt="Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - No Russian" />
<p> </p>
<h2>Abstract</h2>
<p><em>You are a CIA agent who has infiltrated the Russian mafia and the mafia bosses want you to shoot down innocent civilians in a crowded Moscow airport. What do you do - kill the civilians or blow your cover?</em></p>
<p>The above scenario is taken from the controversial ‘No Russian’ chapter in the videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Graphically realistic and often provoking us to explore deeper questions, videogames have changed from simplistic beat-em-ups to more thought-provoking media through which stories can be shaped and retold. Videogames are, therefore, storytelling media although traditional Humanities and Information Technology both struggle with this notion. This talk will explore how videogames tell stories and why traditional academia finds them problematic. It will also address how understanding this ‘new; storytelling could result in the creation of eminently more innovative and arguably, more marketable gaming software.</p>
<p>Coming back to the Call of Duty scenario, one notices a significant difference from most stories that we get in books or movies. The reader / player has a choice and this is a nontrivial choice that influences the furtherance of the story. The story therefore has multiple endings and is, in effect, constructed jointly by the affordances and mechanics created by the game designer and by the choices and the playing skill of the player. Further, the player can save and replay a game sequence over and over - each time the game plays out differently and the story changes, at least slightly. Moreover, the involvement of the player with the game environment can be very intense and create the feeling of being within the story-world. Finally, there is the issue of accepting that games, usually likened to the playful and the non-serious, can be instrumental in creating a thought-provoking narrative experience. Likewise, the idea of a computer program spinning out a story is equally unexpected and looked upon with suspicion.</p>
<p>For all the problems posed by game-narratives, the consideration that videogames tell stories and that some videogames tell very thought-provoking tales is an unavoidable one. Recent trends in Humanities criticism and in Computing recognise the synergy between the disciplines. Gaming is no longer all about creating Shooters such as Doom; videogames have changed in concept, have entered social networking platforms and are increasingly beginning to comment on real-world issues. In terms of software development, the storytelling game has made it imperative to study the player’s responses; how players interact with the game-world and how they innovate strategies are of key importance to designing successful gameplay sequences. As far as the Humanities are concerned, the game-narrative can provoke thought into philosophical problems such as the morality of killing civilians in the Call of Duty sequence; further the videogame-story also helps explore storytelling in a multiple and shared textual form and to think about inherent linkages between games, stories and machines.</p>
<p>The aim of this talk is to raise questions regarding the storytelling aspect of videogames rather than coming up with any set conclusions. Ultimately, such a discussion aims to lead to the development of some new pointers for rethinking the videogame industry, especially in terms of the global marketplace and in terms of how the story-experience in videogames is a key factor in shaping player interest. This talk is an introduction to the now slightly over a decade old field of Game Studies and how it relates to discussions of other digital media, Internet cultures and also traditional Humanities. As an introduction, it also aims to open discussions for Game Studies in India.</p>
<h2>Speaker</h2>
<p><strong>Souvik Mukherjee</strong> is currently employed as Assistant Professor of English Literature at Presidency University (earlier Presidency College), Calcutta. Souvik has been researching videogames as an emerging storytelling medium since 2002 and has completed his PhD on the subject from Nottingham Trent University in 2009. Souvik has done his postdoctoral research in the Humanities faculty of De Montfort University, UK and as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India where he worked on digital media as well as narrative analysis.</p>
<p>Souvik's monograph <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137525048"><em>Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books</em></a> was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. His research examines their relationship to canonical ideas of narrative and also how videogames inform and challenge current conceptions of technicity, identity and culture, in general. His current interests involve the analysis of paratexts of videogames such as walkthroughs and after-action reports as well as the concept of time and telos in videogames. Besides Game Studies, his other interests are (the) Digital Humanities and Early Modern Literature. He also blogs about videogames research on <a href="http://readinggamesandplayingbooks.blogspot.in/">Ludus ex Machina</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm'>https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppGamingWeb CulturesDigital KnowledgeGame StudiesDigital MediaResearchers at WorkEvent2016-09-16T13:21:58ZEventState of Consumer Digital Security in India
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india
<b>This report attempts to identify the existing state of digital safety in India, with a mapping of digital threats, which will aid stakeholders in identifying and addressing digital security problems in the country. This project was funded by the Asia Foundation.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since 2006, successive Union governments in India have shown increased focus on digital governance. The National e-Governance Plan was launched by the UPA government in2006, and several digital projects led by the state such as digitisation of the filing of taxes, appointment process for passports, corporate governance, and the Aadhaar programme(India’s unique digital identity system that utilises biometric and demographic data) arose under it, in the form of mission mode projects (projects that are part of a broader National e-governance initiative, each focusing on specific e-Governance aspects, like banking, land records, or commercial taxes). In 2014, when the NDA government came to power, the National e-Governance Plan was subsumed under the government’s flagship project of Digital India, and several mission mode projects were added. In the meantime, the internet connectivity, first in the form of wire connectivity, and later in the form of mobile connectivity has increased greatly. In the same period, use of digital services, first in new services native to the Internet such as email, social networking, instant messaging, and later the platformization and disruption of traditional business models in transportation, healthcare, finance and virtually every sector, has led to a deluge of digital private service providers in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Currently, India has 500 million internet users — over a third of its total population — making it the country with the second largest number of Internet users after China. The uptake of these technological services has also been accompanied by several kinds of digital threats that an average digital consumer in India must regularly contend with. This report is a mapping of consumer-facing digital threats in India and is intended to aid stakeholders in identifying and addressing digital security problems. The first part of the report categorises digital threats into four kinds, Personal Data Threats, Online Content Related Threats, Financial Threats, and Online Sexual Harassment Threats. Threats under each category are then defined, with detailed consumer-facing consequences, and past instances where harm has been caused because of these threats.</p>
<hr />
<p> </p>
<p>Read the full report <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/report-state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india" class="internal-link" title="Report - State of Consumer Digital Security in India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherpranavDigital GovernancePrivacyDigital KnowledgeInternet GovernanceDigital Media2021-07-05T11:07:24ZBlog EntryResearch Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India, New Delhi, Feb 27-28
https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-transitions-in-cultural-and-creative-industries-in-india-symposium-2018
<b>It is our privilege to collaborate with LabEx ICCA (Université Paris 13), UNESCO New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), and Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS), to organise a Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India. The symposium gathers researchers and practitioners engaging with the changing landscape of cultural and creative industries in India in the context of the rapid expansion of digital technologies and social media. We invite you to join us for a critical exploration of the prevalent discourse around cultural and creative industries, to identify what could be the different forms of digital creative and cultural industries developing in India, and how they problematise the questions of cultural expression, knowledge production, creativity, and labour.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Venue: <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/UNESCO+NEW+DELHI/@28.5962104,77.1766346,17z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x390d1d69e65aea35:0x95c8f02076400bf2!2sUNESCO+NEW+DELHI!8m2!3d28.5962104!4d77.1788233!3m4!1s0x390d1d69e65aea35:0x95c8f02076400bf2!8m2!3d28.5962104!4d77.1788233?hl=en" target="_blank">Conference Room, UNESCO New Delhi, 1 San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, 110021</a> (<em>Note: Please bring your identity document to enter the UNESCO premises</em>)</h4>
<h4>RSVP: Registration is closed</h4>
<h4>Booklet: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/docs/labex-icca-cis-unesco_symposium-2018_booklet.pdf">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Programme: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/research-symposium-on-transitions-in-cultural-and-creative-industries-in-india-programme-2018/at_download/file">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Poster: <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/labex-icca-cis-unesco_symposium-2018_poster.png">Download</a> (PNG)</h4>
<h4>Organisers: <a href="https://icca.univ-paris13.fr/" target="_blank">LabEx ICCA, Université Paris 13</a>, <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/newdelhi" target="_blank">UNESCO New Delhi</a>, <a href="http://csh-delhi.com/" target="_blank">Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH)</a>, <a href="http://ceias.ehess.fr/" target="_blank">Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS)</a>, and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India</h4>
<hr />
<img src="digital-transitions-in-cultural-and-creative-industries-in-india-symposium-2018/leadImage" alt="Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India, New Delhi, Feb 27-28" width="50%" />
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Concept Note</strong></h3>
<p>Digital technologies involve, accompany and provoke changes in the structuring of industrial sectors. How are they more particularly transforming the creation, production, distribution processes in cultural and creative industries? What are reconfigurations and challenges associated with the rise in power of actors from the industries of communication and information? What are the new stakeholder strategies, economic models and power relationships involved? Does digital have the effect of empowering the smallest actors / self-employed / freelancers or on the contrary does it allow large players to relieve themselves of the promotion, production costs on individual creator?</p>
<p>A growing interest in fields such as digital humanities, new media, digital cultures and the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector is another important development here. The rise of a number of digital initiatives in arts and humanities practice, research and teaching has also brought up significantly the question of new skills or expertise required in these fields. The need for digital literacy and ‘re-skilling’ to adapt to new forms of arts and humanities practice in a digital environment has often come with much criticism, as it is viewed as an effort towards vocationalisation and professionalization of these disciplines, a result of the changing mandates of the university and higher education in general. How do we then productively engage with these questions of skill, expertise and labour that goes into the building of new digital industries, which are often located within and at the periphery of academia and creative practices? Importantly, how can concerns about a perceived conflict of creativity and industry be addressed as these transformations take place rapidly with the advent of the digital is an important point of focus.</p>
<p>A critical exploration of the prevalent discourse around creative industries would offer ways of identifying what could be the different forms of digital creative and cultural industries developing in India, and how they problematize for us questions of cultural expression, knowledge production, creativity and labour. The conflation and overlap of both ‘cultural’ and ‘creative industries’ and the location of these terms within a larger discourse around policy, economic development, livelihoods and rights, takes on different dimensions post the digital turn. In the context of initiatives like Digital India, and efforts to consolidate an IPR regime, the implications of policy reforms for creative work, especially that performed within informal/underground economies and in the cultural heritage sector are many. These discussions would inform and draw from the ongoing efforts in fostering of a digital economy in India, and the many ways in which it determines cultural production in the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Topics that will be addressed at the symposium include, but are not restricted to:</p>
<p>- Digital turns and transformations in cultural and creative industries</p>
<p>- Media infrastructure, digital platforms, and changing landscape of actors</p>
<p>- Digital transitions in the Indian news industry</p>
<p>- Online/offline lives of creative industries and media consumption</p>
<p>Presented by the Labex ICCA and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS), the symposium will gather Indian, French, and international specialists in the cultural industries, new media and technology, information and communication sciences, and social sciences but also professionals and industrial actors in the cultural and artistic sectors. The event is driven an ambition to promote the creation of an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional Franco-Indian research network to initiate, develop and share research on cultural industries in India and more widely in South Asia.</p>
<h4>Organising Committee</h4>
<p>- Christine Ithurbide (LabEx ICCA, Université Paris 13 / CSH)</p>
<p>- Philippe Bouquillion (LabEx ICCA, Université Paris 13)</p>
<p>- Vibodh Parthasarathi (Jamia Millia Islamia)</p>
<p>- Sumandro Chattapadhyay (The Centre for Internet and Society)</p>
<p>- Puthiya Purayil Sneha (The Centre for Internet and Society)</p>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Symposium Programme (Draft)</strong></h3>
<h4>First Day – Tuesday, February 27, 2018</h4>
<p>10:00-10:30<br />
<strong>Tea and Coffee</strong></p>
<p>10:30-11:00<br />
<strong>Welcoming Address</strong><br />
<em>Snigdha Bisht (UNESCO Cultural Department)</em><br />
<strong>Introductions</strong><br />
<em>Shailendra Sigdel (UNESCO Institute for Statistics), Christine Ithurbide (LabEx ICCA / CSH), and Vibodh Parthasarathi (Jamia Millia Islamia)</em></p>
<p>11:00-12:30<br />
<strong>Session 1: Digital Opportunities and Challenges in the Cultural Industries</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Tanishka Kachru (National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad), Akshaya Kumar (IIT Indore), and Vivan Sharan (KOAN Advisory)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Christine Ithurbide (LabEx ICCA / CSH)</em></p>
<p>12:30-13:30<br />
<strong>Lunch</strong></p>
<p>13:30-15:00<br />
<strong>Session 2: Digital Transitions in the News Landscape</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Zeenab Aneez (Freelance Journalist), Ravichandran Bathran (Dalit Camera), and Franck Rebillard (University of Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle and Labex ICCA)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Vibodh Parthasarathi (Jamia Millia Islamia)</em></p>
<p>15:00-15:30<br />
<strong>Tea and Coffee</strong></p>
<p>15:30-17:00<br />
<strong>Session 3: Technology, Creativity, and (Re)Skilling</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Padmini Ray Murray (Srishti School of Art Design and Technology), Sneha Raghavan (Asia Art Archive), and Xenia Zeiler (University of Helsinki)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Puthiya Purayil Sneha (The Centre for Internet and Society)</em></p>
<h4>Second Day – Wednesday, February 28, 2018</h4>
<p>10:00-10:30<br />
<strong>Tea and Coffee</strong></p>
<p>10:30-12:30<br />
<strong>Session 4: Digital Platforms and Media Distribution</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Narendra Ganesh (KPMG), Mae Thomas (Maed in India), Philippe Bouquillion (Université Paris 13 / LabEx ICCA), and Nikhil Pahwa (Medianama)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Sumandro Chattapadhyay (The Centre for Internet and Society)</em></p>
<p>12:30-13:30<br />
<strong>Lunch</strong></p>
<p>13:30-15:00<br />
<strong>Session 5: Copyright, Creative Content, and Rights of Performers</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Nandita Saikia (Lawyer), Anubha Sinha (The Centre for Internet and Society), and Manojna Yeluri (Artistik License)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Neha Paliwal (Sahapedia)</em></p>
<p>15:00-15:30<br />
<strong>Tea and Coffee</strong></p>
<p>15:30-17:00<br />
<strong>Session 6: Technologies of Aesthetic Imagi/nation</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Farrah Miranda (Artists), Rashmi Munikempanna (Artist), Swati Janu (Architect), and Tara Atluri (Writer, Researcher, Artist)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Tara Atluri (Writer, Researcher, Artist)</em></p>
<p>17:00-18:00<br />
<strong>Concluding Remarks</strong><br />
<em><strong>Speakers:</strong> Christine Ithurbide (LabEx ICCA / CSH), Neha Paliwal (Sahapedia), Philippe Bouquillion (Université Paris 13 / LabEx ICCA), Puthiya Purayil Sneha (The Centre for Internet and Society), Tara Atluri (Writer, Researcher, Artist), and Vibodh Parthasarathi (Jamia Millia Islamia)<br />
<strong>Chair:</strong> Sumandro Chattapadhyay (The Centre for Internet and Society)</em></p>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Location of Venue</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3503.1188754990826!2d77.17663461441647!3d28.596210382432034!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x390d1d69e65aea35%3A0x95c8f02076400bf2!2sUNESCO+NEW+DELHI!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1518344368273" frameborder="0" height="450" width="600"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-transitions-in-cultural-and-creative-industries-in-india-symposium-2018'>https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-transitions-in-cultural-and-creative-industries-in-india-symposium-2018</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroDigital NewsRAW EventsDigital EconomyDigital KnowledgeDigital MediaCreative IndustriesResearchers at Work2018-02-26T11:04:24ZEventPorn block in India sparks outrage
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-news-august-5-2015-amanda-hodge-porn-block-in-india-sparks-outrage
<b>
India’s government has triggered a storm of protest after blocking 857 alleged pornography websites, with privacy and internet freedom campaigners, as well as consumers, condemning the move as arbitrary and unlawful.
</b>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Amanda Hodge was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/porn-block-in-india-sparks-outrage/story-e6frg6so-1227470074078">Australian</a> on August 5, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The order, enforced since Sunday by the country’s main internet service providers, comes amid debate about the influence of pornography on sex crime in India, and as the Supreme Court considers a petition by lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani to ban pornographic websites that harm children.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government has been forced to defend the move, saying it was taken in response to Supreme Court criticism at inaction against child pornography websites, although the Supreme Court itself has refused to impose any interim ban while it considers the petition. The websites — a fraction of the world’s millions of internet pornography sites — will remain blocked until the government figures out how to restrict access, a spokesman said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Critics have slammed the measure as unconstitutional and pointed out the list includes adult humour sites that contain no pornographic content. Others have suggested it is another intrusion into the private lives of ordinary Indians by an administration intent on pushing a puritanical Hindu agenda, citing the recent ban on beef in several states and an alleged “Hindu-isation” of school textbooks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">That prompted outrage from Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. “I reject with contempt the charge that it is a Talibani government. Our government supports free media, respects communication on social media and has respected freedom of communication always,” he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While India has no law preventing citizens accessing internet pornography, regulations do restrict the publishing of “obscene information in electronic form”. Centre for Internet and Society policy director Pranesh Prakash told <i>The Australian </i>yesterday that some elements of that act were welcome — such as prohibition of child pornography and the uploading of a person’s private parts without consent — but “the provisions relating to ‘sexually explicit materials’ are far too broad, with no exceptions made for art, architecture, education or literature”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr Prakash said the pornography ban amounted to an “abdication of the government’s duty”, given the list of sites blocked was provided on request to the government by one of the Vaswani petitioners. “The additional solicitor-general essentially asked one of the petitioners to provide a list of websites, which she passed on to the Department of Information Technology, which in turn passed to Department of Telecommunications asking for them to be blocked or disabled.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“That is not acceptable in a democracy where it is not the government which has actually found any of these websites to be unlawful.” Mr Prakash also criticised the secrecy surrounding the order, which he said contravened Indian law requiring a public declaration of any intended ban so that it might be challenged. The bans were made under “Rule 12” of India’s IT Act, which empowers the government to force ISPs to block sites when it is “necessary or expedient”.</p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-news-august-5-2015-amanda-hodge-porn-block-in-india-sparks-outrage'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-news-august-5-2015-amanda-hodge-porn-block-in-india-sparks-outrage</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshIT ActCensorshipFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceDigital MediaChilling Effect2015-08-05T02:10:46ZNews ItemPorn ban: People will soon learn to circumvent ISPs and govt orders, expert says
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-2-2015-karthikeyan-hemalatha-porn-ban
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Karthikeyan Hemalatha was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Porn-ban-People-will-soon-learn-to-circumvent-ISPs-and-govt-orders-expert-says/articleshow/48320914.cms">Times of India</a> on August 2. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government used other sections of the Act to circumvent this provision. Sources in the Department of Telecommunication, which comes under the ministry of communications and information technology, said a notification had been issued under Section 79 (b) of IT Act under which internet service providers could be penalized for not following government orders. "Though the section protects an internet service provider (ISP) from legal action for the content it may allow, it can be penalized for not following government orders to ban them," said Prakash.<br /> <br /> Last month, the Supreme Court declined to pass an interim order to block websites which have pornographic content. "Such interim orders cannot be passed by this court. Somebody may come to the court and say 'look I am above 18 and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room?' It is a violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty]," said Chief Justice H L Dattu.<br /> <br /> The judge was reacting to a public interest litigation filed by advocate Kamlesh Vashwani who was seeking to block porn websites in the country. "The issue is definitely serious and some steps need to be taken. The Centre is expected to take a stand. Let us see what stand the Centre will take," the Chief Justice said and directed the Centre to reply within four weeks. Over the weekend, the stance became clear.<br /> <br /> Sources also say that Section 19 (2) of the Constitution was used for the ban. The section allows the government to impose "reasonable restrictions in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court."<br /> <br /> For netizens, the government could actually be providing crash courses on proxy sites. "This is the best way to teach people on how to circumvent ISPs and government orders," said Prakash, adding that real abusive porn sites might still be available.<br /> <br /> "There is no dynamic mechanism to block all sites with pornographic content. The government has to individually pick URLs (uniform resource locator) to ban websites. Right now, only popular websites have been banned and the little known abusive sites like those that propagate revenge porn or child porn," said Prakash. "No ban can be comprehensive," he added.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-2-2015-karthikeyan-hemalatha-porn-ban'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-2-2015-karthikeyan-hemalatha-porn-ban</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshIT ActCensorshipFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceDigital MediaChilling Effect2015-08-05T01:47:52ZNews ItemOnly digital sex, please
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please
<b>Many Indian men are getting so dependent on digital sex and online pornography that they can’t handle real relationships. And a new book says this is happening the world over. Prasun Chandhuri and Avijit Chatterjee turn the spotlight on the trend</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150531/jsp/7days/story_23033.jsp">published in the Telegraph</a> on May 31. Rohini is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">P. Sharath doesn't know how to handle women. The 31-year-old software engineer, who works for a multinational company in Bangalore, thinks he doesn't need them either. The man who grew up in Hubli in Karnataka and now earns an eight-figure annual salary has his virtual world. That gives him his sexual satisfaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Socially awkward, Sharath did try to date a woman, but the relationship broke within a few months because he found that she was getting to be "clingy" and "boring". An attempt by his family to fix a marriage with a woman failed when he groped her in a cinema hall. His online women, on the other hand, need no pampering, and do not complain.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sharath, however, is not happy. "He no longer gets any gratification from online sex and has been suffering from anxiety and depression," says Dr Ali Khwaja, a Bangalore-based psychologist and founder of the Banjara Academy, a counselling centre.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Increasingly, counsellors in urban India are coming across such cases of people who are so used to digital sex that they can't cope with real relationships any more. Khwaja refers to them as "hollow men" - people who go through despair after relations fail because of their dependence on digital pornography.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Almost every week I meet a young man addicted to porn," says Mumbai-based counsellor Shefali Batra, author of the recently published book <i>Teen Matters</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It's a pattern that many counsellors have noticed. As teenagers, young boys get hooked on to digital sex. "But it becomes a vicious addiction over time, playing havoc with their social and sexual development," Batra says. The women they meet do not match up to the large breasted and oversexed digital women - and the boys become men who cannot sustain marriages and relationships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pornography has always existed, and some counsellors do not believe that it is always harmful. But the spread of the Internet, the easy availability of smartphones and the profusion of sophisticated sex games and other platforms have led to a situation where men merely log on for sexual satisfaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet is bursting at the seams with sex sites. There are various types of sex games, including cartoon sex games, 3D sex games, virtual reality sex games and so on where the viewer can indulge in sex with three or four imaginary characters. Some online games offer virtual simulation sex. In a new genre of digital porn, users can enjoy 3D porn with a special virtual reality headset that allows them to step inside their favourite games and completely immerse themselves in a sexual fantasy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">And this is happening across the world. In a recently released book, <i>Men (Dis)Connected: How technology has sabotaged what it means to be male</i>, psychologist Philip Zimbardo holds that "masculinity" is being destroyed by online pornography and gaming technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We have surveyed over 20,000 young people in many countries. Even though we don't have data on Indian men, we assume that the impact of freely available porn is creating a new breed of addicts in every country," he says in an email interview. "These men prefer to masturbate to visual images than have live sexual relations with real women."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nikita Coulombe, co-author of <i>Men (Dis)Connected</i>, adds that it is an "endless novelty" and a "virtual harem" for the men. "In 10 minutes you can see more 'mates' than your ancestors would have seen in their lifetime."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There was a time when people shrugged and said, it's just a phase. But Zimbardo believes that this addiction has gone beyond that and will have a "permanent negative impact" on young men everywhere because the porn industry is big business.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The professor emeritus at Stanford discovered this phenomenon when he found that many of his male students were shy and spent too much time poring over screens. Closer home, academic and writer Shiv Visvanathan had a similar experience while teaching at the O.P. Jindal University in Haryana.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Many of these guys do not know how to talk to a girl - they'd rather convey their feelings through text messages or through social networks or mobile phones. Sometimes you'll even see two people sitting close together but talking over the phone, just to avoid a face-to-face conversation," Visvanathan says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What this means is that young men are not just wary of getting into relationships - they are not missing them either. "Porn gives them instant gratification which can be repeated, say, 200 times. Moreover, the virtual body seems more transformable than the actual body and it's fast," Visvanathan points out.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is an addiction that draws men more than women, primarily because the majority of Internet porn is male-centric and, more than teenage women, boys are addicted to computer games and associated thrills. "Research has affirmed that this is truer for the male brain in comparison to the female brain," explains Batra. "The male brain is more thrill and pleasure seeking and these exciting virtual realities provide an immense rush of pleasure in the brain."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zimbardo's survey underlines this. It found that three out of five men expressed a "lack of interest in pursuing and maintaining a romantic relationship" while three out of four women between the ages of 18 and 30 said they were concerned about the "emotional immaturity or the unavailability" of men.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the celebrated psychologist plans to conduct a similar survey in India, concerns are already rising because the lack of sex education in schools and colleges - coupled with repressed backgrounds and exaggerated pornographic images - gives the young a warped idea of sex and relationships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"In a society where talking about sex is taboo, their only avenue to satisfy sexual curiosities becomes porn," says Rohini Lakshane, researcher, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is why sexologist Prakash Kothari often encounters young men who yearn for a "14-inch organ" and suffer from performance anxiety and depression. "Proper sex education can teach them just two inches and oodles of erotic love are enough to satisfy your female partner," says Kothari.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The experts stress that they are not against pornography. "One should not shoot the messenger," contends Audrey D'Mello, programme director, Majlis, a legal counselling centre in Mumbai. "If used properly it can be an aphrodisiac," Kothari adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But many of the images that the young today see are violent and bestial. "These twisted forms of sex are being consumed by young men and boys through smartphones across the country," laments Ira Trivedi, author of <i>India in Love</i>. Lakshane believes that easy access to violent pornography "degrades and objectifies women", giving men and boys a "skewed view of sex and intimacy".</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Calcutta-based Subhrangshu Aditya counselled a woman who wanted a divorce because her husband forced her to replicate all that he watched on porn. "It was torture for her, devoid of romantic love or eroticism," Aditya says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Indeed, the effect on men has an impact on women as well. Trivedi points out that as men devote themselves to porn, women go for measures such as vaginal beautification to attract men.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Or women go off sex altogether.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"These women have an extreme phobia about sex," says Aindri Sanyal, an infertility specialist at a Calcutta-based fertility centre. "Some haven't even got their marriage consummated. So they want to conceive through artificial insemination."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Is there a way out? Experts such as Khwaja are doing what they can. "I am trying to help Sharath socialise in mixed groups, then spend a few minutes at a time doing a favour for a woman, or showing a gesture. I want him to focus on understanding the emotions that girls go through and eventually make him understand how to interact with another flesh-and-blood person who has her own romantic and sexual needs," he says. "The process will take quite a long time."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zimbardo, 82, wants the "socially crippled generation" to hit the Escape button on their digital devices. He wants to remind them that real sex involves communicating with a real person, feeling their pain, earning their trust and making a real connection to their heart. Like people did, once upon a time.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">If it’s May, it’s got to be India</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Some porn stats</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In 2014, India ranked among the highest consumers of pornographic content in the world, according to Pornhub, an online video hub</li>
<li>Around 25 per cent of Indian visitors on Pornhub.com were women, 2 per cent higher than the worldwide average of 23 per cent</li>
<li>Indians seek out pornography most in May and least in October</li>
<li>More Indians surf porn on their smartphones than on desktops</li>
<li>On an average, Indians spend 8 minutes and 22 seconds per visit to Pornhub, 30 seconds less than the rest of the world</li>
<li>Of all states, people from Andhra Pradesh spend the least time on Pornhub — 6 min and 40 sec; people from West Bengal spend 9 min and 5 sec; people from Assam spend 9 min and 55 sec</li>
<li>Sunny Leone is India’s favourite porn star</li>
<li>In most places in the world, porn is viewed most on Monday, but in India, it’s on Saturday</li>
<li>Porn viewing in India dips by over 25 per cent on Diwali, Dussehra, New Year’s Eve and Gandhi Jayanti.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaInternet Governance2015-06-15T01:38:12ZNews ItemNanny state rules porn bad for you
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-4-2015-anahita-mukherji-nanny-state-rules-porn-bad-for-you
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Anahita Mukherji was published in the Times of India on August 4, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span id="advenueINTEXT" style="float: left; ">Half a century ago, India banned the DH Lawrence classic, Lady Chatterley's Lover. The ban, though lambasted for its Victorian view of modesty and obscenity, was fair and square; the matter was debated in the Supreme Court, which upheld the ban. Over 50 years later, a diverse spectrum of civil society has slammed a much more insidious and far less transparent ban on internet pornography.<br /><br />For starters, the 857 sites that vanished from India's internet sphere haven't been officially banned, they just don't show up when you type the url. The order blocking them isn't public. For a list of the 857 sites, one must rely on leaked documents put out on Twitter by Pranesh Prakash, policy director, Centre for Internet and Society. "The ban on Lady Chatterley's Lover was public. As for the blocked websites, the government has gone out of its way to hide the list of sites pulled down. A secret order banning material violates all principles of transparency in a democracy," says Prakash.<br /> <br /> The document, with 'Restricted' written on it, is a letter from the department of telecom asking ISPs to disable 857 sites as they bear content related to "morality" and "decency," violating Article 19 (2).<br /> <br /> Strangely, the order's been issued under Sec 79 (3)(b) of the IT Act dealing with intermediaries having to remove material used to commit unlawful acts. "Watching porn isn't illegal in India. Disseminating 'obscene' content can be illegal, but for that, the government must file a case against the sites, and they must be allowed a representation," says Prakash.<br /> <br /> "Sec 79 (3)(b) of the IT act isn't the section under which governments can block sites. It should use Sec 69 that has a review process," says Nikhil Pahwa, a champion of internet freedom.<br /> <br /> The government drew up its list of 857 sites even as SC is in the process of hearing a petition to ban porn and is yet to pass an order. It includes playboy.com that, says Prakash, is a legitimate adult site. Pahwa points to the ban's "bizarrely moralistic undertones".<br /> <br /> "As society evolves, government and regulatory regime are stuck in medieval ages," he says, adding a ban on websites will be rendered ineffective, pushing users to VPNs, a black hole for government monitoring mechanisms.<br /> <br /> "A government that hasn't succeeded with Make in India is trying to prevent Make out in India," says venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy, who earlier backed net neutrality.<br /> <br /> "The government is blocking websites to keep Rightwing lunatic fringes happy after its unsuccessful bid to pass the land bill," says Murthy.<br /> <br /> "It isn't merely looking at blocking porn, but is trying to bring back Sec 66A (IT Act), ruled unconstitutional by the SC," he adds. "It's part of the bid to restrict individual freedom, create an artificial separation between Indian culture and anything erotic, driven by a diktat from Hindutva forces. It's ironic as Modi came to power as someone looking to activate individual agency. Now he's wary about where that leads to," says Subir Sinha, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). Murthy and Sinha believe the issue stems from a refusal to accept Indian culture in totality. "Victorian morality is considered Hindu, Khajuraho isn't," says Murthy.<br /> <br /> "The government seems to be acting in a more high-handed manner than previous ones. The press and public opinion should wake up to this," says sociologist Andre Beteille.</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-4-2015-anahita-mukherji-nanny-state-rules-porn-bad-for-you'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-4-2015-anahita-mukherji-nanny-state-rules-porn-bad-for-you</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCensorshipFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceDigital MediaChilling Effect2015-08-05T01:39:28ZNews ItemMinds that (should) matter
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-
<b>Thinkers who best explain a rapidly-changing India to the world (and the world to India).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Raju Narisetti was <a class="external-link" href="http://forbesindia.com/article/special/minds-that-%28should%29-matter/39289/2">published in Forbes India magazine</a> on January 2, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Sunil Abraham</b> <br />Executive director of The Centre for Internet and Society. Has deep insights into India’s rapidly growing digital culture as well as the threats to it from misguided government regulation.<br /><br /><b>Shuddhabrata Sengupta</b><br />Runs Raqs Media Collective and is a founder of the Sarai Collective which does the rare examination of the interplay of urban India/technology/culture.<br /><br /><b>Anusha Rizvi</b> <br />The former journalist who directed Peepli Live is now a filmmaker. Peepli was the first ever Indian film to be screened at Sundance. Her response to broadcast media and society issues always make you think.<br /><br /><b>Mohandas Pai</b><br /> Ex-Infosys and now with the Manipal Group, he is active in public policy and corporate governance issues, and is not afraid to speak his mind. He was behind the Bangalore Political Action Committee—first-of-its-kind in India—and is also an activist shareholder who has minority shareholders’ interests in mind. <br /><b><br />Ramesh Ramanathan</b> <br />Ex-Citibanker, who heads Janalakshmi, a micro/alternative finance organisation, that has attracted Wall Street money. Offers honest and workable solutions through Janagraha, a hybrid public-private partnership initiative.<br /> <br /><b>Satish Acharya</b> <br />A brilliant cartoonist from Mangalore. A small-town guy whose views on Indian politics and Indian sport are spot on as he traverses the fine line of cartoons in India: Not too cerebral, but never clichéd and banal either.<br /><br /><b>Chhavi Rajawat <br /></b>A young MBA who chose to go back to her ancestral village, Soda in Rajasthan, to help bring management skills to grassroots governance. Won elections to be its sarpanch. A high-profile doer, she will be worth listening to about hands-on governance.<br /><br /><b>Payal Chawla </b><br />While her past claim to fame is taking on Coca-Cola over workplace harassment, as a lawyer and founder of her own law firm, Juscontractus, this University of Chicago alumni would be a good way to track India’s troubled legal system.<br /> <br /><b>Pushkar</b> <br />A professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at BITS Pilani’s Goa Campus, he is particularly good on a major challenge for India: Reforming its education system. <br /><br /><b>Karuna Nundy</b> <br />A Supreme Court lawyer involved in major commercial and human rights litigation and legal policy, she has contributed in a major way on gender justice in India, recently helping with the new anti-rape laws. <br /><br /><b>Binalakshmi Nepram</b><br /> She fights racism against people from the North East and says it like it needs to be said in a country with deep geographical and regional prejudices. <br /><br /><b>Ireena Vittal</b> <br />This former McKinsey consultant has a lot of good things to say about smart cities.<br /><b><br />Economic and Political Weekly</b><br /> Ignore its left-leaning interpretations and conclusions. Focus on its outstanding data.<br /><br /><b>GVL Narasimha Rao</b> <br />GVL knows his psephology like few others do. His current turn as a spokesman for the BJP yields unrelenting evidence that is often hard to refute. And he takes sides when taking sides can be personally risky.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaInternet GovernanceSocial Media2015-02-26T16:34:25ZNews ItemMapping Digital Media: Broadcasting, Journalism and Activism in India — A Public Consultation
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore
<b>Alternative Law Forum, Maraa and the Centre for Internet and Society invite you to a public consultation on Mapping Digital Media in India, on October 27, 2013 at the Bangalore International Centre from 10 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to download the <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mapping-digital-media.pdf" class="internal-link">background note</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-press-invite.pdf" class="internal-link">press invite</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-press-release.pdf" class="internal-link">press release</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-invite-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">poster</a> of the event.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Here, reputed media lawyers, researchers, journalists, activists and other media professionals will be responding to a recent report that examines the progress of digitisation in India and its impact on media freedom and citizen’s access to quality news and information—the fundamental principles underpinning the Open Society Foundations’ work on media and communications.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, India decided to make digitalise distribution of television signals across India in a phased manner, further contributing to the phenomenon of global digitisation, as citizens enter the fully digital broadcast world. While there may be perceived benefits of the ‘digital switchover’ in terms of freeing up spectrum, increase in quality of signals and so on, the full impact of digitalisation on plurality, diversity, ownership of media and content is yet to be comprehended fully.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through this public consultation, hosts, <i>Maraa, the Alternative Law Forum</i> (ALF) <i>and the Centre for Internet and Society</i> (CIS), hope to shed light on key challenges confronting our emergent digital landscape while incorporating the input of those directly affected by this digitisation, India’s digital consumers, in a widened discussion on the matter. Speakers will directly respond to three sections of the country report – <b>Regulation, Digital Activism</b> and <b>Journalism</b>, and discussions to focus on trends in broadcasting (radio and television), cable operations and newspapers (print & online) as each of these sectors undergo digitalisation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We would appreciate your participation at this public consultation so that we each may become better informed with regards to India’s digital media landscape and contribute to discussion as we strive to better comprehend the multifaceted picture that is emerging as this media digitisation takes place and look forward to hearing your input.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The India report is available for free download at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-india">http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-india</a></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Agenda</h2>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Policies, Laws and Regulators</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.00 a.m. - 10.30 a.m.</td>
<td>Lawrence Liang</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.30 a.m. - 11.00 a.m.</td>
<td>Mathew John</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30 a.m. - 11.45 a.m.</td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Impact of Digital Media on Activism</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.45 a.m. - 12.15 p.m.</td>
<td>Arjun Venkatraman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.15 p.m. - 12.45 p.m.</td>
<td>Meera K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.45 p.m. - 1.15 p.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1.15 p.m. - 2.00 p.m.</td>
<td>Lunch Break</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Impact of Digital Media on Journalism</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2.00 p.m. - 2.30 p.m.</td>
<td>Geeta Seshu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2.30 p.m. - 3.00 p.m.</td>
<td>Subhash Rai</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3.00 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Closing Remarks</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaEventInternet Governance2013-10-25T10:46:24ZEventLinking Facebook use to free top-up data
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-chronicle-february-14-2016-linking-facebook-use-to-free-top-up-data
<b>Just before the Trai notification, the Ambani brothers signed a spectrum sharing pact and they have been sharing optic fibre since 2013.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/140216/linking-facebook-use-to-free-top-up-data.html">Deccan Chronicle</a> on February 14, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some people argue that Trai should have stayed off the issue since the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is sufficient to tackle Net Neutrality harms. However it is unclear if predatory pricing by Reliance, which has only nine per cent market share, will cross the competition law threshold for market dominance? Interestingly, just before the Trai notification, the Ambani brothers signed a spectrum sharing pact and they have been sharing optic fibre since 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Will a content sharing pact follow these carriage pacts? As media diversity researcher, Alam Srinivas, notes: “If their plans succeed, their media empires will span across genres such as print, broadcasting, radio and digital. They will own the distribution chains such as cable, direct-to-home (DTH), optic fibre (terrestrial and undersea), telecom towers and multiplexes.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What does this convergence vision of the Ambani brothers mean for media diversity in India? In the absence of net neutrality regulation could they use their dominance in broadcast media to reduce choice on the Internet? Could they use a non-neutral provisioning of the Internet to increase their dominance in broadcast media? When a single wire or the very same radio spectrum delivers radio, TV, games and Internet to your home — what under competition law will be considered a substitutable product? What would be the relevant market?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), we argue that competition law principles with lower threshold should be applied to networked infrastructure through infrastructure specific non-discrimination regulations like the one that Trai just notified to protect digital media diversity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Was an absolute prohibition the best response for Trai? With only two possible exemptions — i.e. closed communication network and emergencies — the regulation is very clear and brief. However, as our colleague Pranesh Prakash has said, Trai has over-regulated and used a sledgehammer where a scalpel would have sufficed. In CIS’ official submission, we had recommended a series of tests in order to determine whether a particular type of zero rating should be allowed or forbidden. That test may be legally sophisticated; but as Trai argues it is clear and simple rules that result in regulatory equity. A possible alternative to a complicated multi-part legal test is the leaky walled garden proposal. Remember, it is only in the case of very dangerous technologies where the harms are large scale and irreversible and an absolute prohibition based on the precautionary principle is merited.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, as far as network neutrality harms go, it may be sufficient to insist that for every MB that is consumed within Free Basics, Reliance be mandated to provide a data top up of 3MB.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This would have three advantages. One, it would be easy to articulate in a brief regulation and therefore reduce the possibility of litigation. Two, it is easy for the consumer who is harmed to monitor the mitigation measure and last, based on empirical data, the regulator could increase or decrease the proportion of the mitigation measure.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is an example of what Prof Christopher T. Marsden calls positive, forward-looking network neutrality regulation. Positive in the sense that instead of prohibitions and punitive measures, the emphasis is on obligations and forward-looking in the sense that no new technology and business model should be prohibited.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-chronicle-february-14-2016-linking-facebook-use-to-free-top-up-data'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-chronicle-february-14-2016-linking-facebook-use-to-free-top-up-data</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaFacebookInternet GovernanceSocial Media2016-02-14T12:33:17ZNews Item