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                                      Breaking Down Section 66A of the IT Act
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Pranesh Prakash
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Nov 25, 2012
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Dec 14, 2012 09:51 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Freedom of Speech and Expression,
                                          
                                          
                                            Public Accountability,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Featured,
                                          
                                          
                                            Homepage
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which prescribes 'punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.'  is widely held by lawyers and legal academics to be unconstitutional. In this post Pranesh Prakash explores why that section is unconstitutional, how it came to be, the state of the law elsewhere, and how we can move forward.
                                      
                                          
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                                      Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000: Cases
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Snehashish Ghosh
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Dec 03, 2012
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Dec 06, 2012 09:20 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Information Technology
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
In this blog post Snehashish Ghosh summarizes the facts of a few cases where Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000, has been mentioned or discussed.
                                      
                                          
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                                      Comments to the proposed amendments to The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Divyansha Sehgal and Torsha Sarkar
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Feb 07, 2023
                                            
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            Digital Media,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Information Technology,
                                          
                                          
                                            IT Act
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
This note presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India, on the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“proposed amendments”). We thank Isha Suri for her review of this submission.
                                      
                                          
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                                      We the goondas
                                    
 
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Prasad Krishna
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Aug 04, 2014
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Aug 04, 2014 03:06 PM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Censorship,
                                          
                                          
                                            Social Media,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Chilling Effect
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
You can now be arrested in Karnataka even before you commit an offence under the IT Act. You could be in jail under the Goonda Act even if not guilty under the Indian Copyright Act. If govt thinks you are planning to send a 'lascivious' photo to a WhatsApp group, or forwarding a copyrighted song, you can be arrested.
                                      
                                          
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                                      The Case of Whatsapp Group Admins
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Japreet Grewal
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Nov 26, 2015
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Dec 08, 2015 10:25 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Intermediary Liability,
                                          
                                          
                                            Censorship
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
                                      
                                          
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                                      Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009
                                    
 
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Jadine Lannon
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Apr 24, 2013
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Jul 06, 2013 01:51 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
Rules under section 69(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2008 (after the 2008 amendment).
                                      
                                          
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                                      Information Technology (Procedure and safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) Rules, 2009
                                    
 
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Jadine Lannon
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Apr 25, 2013
                                            
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
Draft Rules under section 69B of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 as notified by the Central Government. 
                                      
                                          
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                                      At the end of the niche optical pirate
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Siddharth Chadha
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Oct 29, 2009
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Aug 04, 2011 04:44 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Consumer Rights,
                                          
                                          
                                            Piracy,
                                          
                                          
                                            Intellectual Property Rights,
                                          
                                          
                                            internet and society
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
In this blog post, Siddharth Chaddha goes enquiring into the modus operandi of a video pirate / film lover / businessman in Bangalore's famed National Market.
                                      
                                          
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                                      Press Coverage of Online Censorship Row
                                     
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Pranesh Prakash
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Dec 08, 2011
                                            
                                            
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                                                last modified
                                              
                                              Dec 08, 2011 11:31 AM
                                            
                                        
                                        
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                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Links,
                                          
                                          
                                            Freedom of Speech and Expression,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Facebook,
                                          
                                          
                                            Intermediary Liability,
                                          
                                          
                                            Censorship
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
We are maintaining a rolling blog with press references to the row created by the proposal by the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology to pre-screen user-generated Internet content.
                                      
                                          
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                                      Debate on Section 66A rages on 
                                    
 
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                                        by
                                            
                                              Prasad Krishna
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                            
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                                                published
                                              
                                              Dec 10, 2012
                                            
                                            
                                        
                                        
                                          —
                                          filed under:
                                          
                                            IT Act,
                                          
                                          
                                            Internet Governance,
                                          
                                          
                                            Public Accountability
                                          
                                        
                                      
                                      
Last week, a reputed BPO in Chennai took down its Facebook page and introduced stricter moderation for posts on its bulletin board. 
                                      
                                          
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