August 2019 Newsletter

CIS and the News

The following articles were authored by CIS secretariat during the month:

• The Knowledge Base is Liberated (Subodh Kulkarni and Madhav Gadgil; Loksatta; August 3, 2019).
• Private Sector and the cultivation of cyber norms in India (Arindrajit Basu; Nextrends India; August 5, 2019).
• Rethinking the intermediary liability regime in India (Torsha Sarkar; CyberBRICS; August 16, 2019).
• Digital Native: How free is the internet? (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; August 18, 2019).
• Linking Aadhaar with social media or ending encryption is counterproductive (Sunil Abraham; Prime Time; August 26, 2019).
• A judicial overreach into matters of regulation (Gurshabad Grover; The Hindu; August 28, 2019).
• Kashmir’s information vacuum (Aayush Rathi and Akriti Bopanna; The Hindu; August 29, 2019).

CIS in the News

CIS secretariat was consulted for the following articles published during the month in various publications:

• Will Modi govt move on Kashmir’s Article 370 stand the scrutiny of Supreme Court? (The Print; August 6, 2019).
• ‘I’m just helpless’: Concern about Kashmir mounts as communication blackout continues (Niha Masih; Washington Post; August 6, 2019).
• Why the Madras HC case on WhatsApp traceability could have wider ramifications (Haripriya Suresh; The News Minute; August 8, 2019).
• Ministry of Health's public consultation on National Digital Health Blueprint: Legal issues around telemedicine, consent, and 'egosystems' in healthcare (Trisha Jalan; Medianama; August 8, 2019).
• Abuse linked to Net fixation (Nina C. George; Deccan Herald; August 13, 2019).
• India Shut Down Kashmir’s Internet Access. Now, ‘We Cannot Do Anything.’ (Vindu Goel, Karan Deep Singh and Sameer; New York Times; August 14, 2019).
• India’s top science institution is trying hard to fix its “manel” problem (Quartz India; August 16, 2019). This piece was originally published on Connect under the headline, “We Learned (The Hard Way) Not to Have Manels.”
• Perché l'India ha tagliato internet al Kashmir (Raffaele Angius; WIRED.IT; August 19, 2019).
• US pressure threatens to weaken data - localisation mandate in India's landmark data-protection bill (Sandhya Sharma; ET Prime; August 19, 2019).
• Linking Aadhaar to Facebook, WhatsApp won't curb fake news, but may undermine its legislation: Experts (Swathy Moorthy; Moneycontrol; August 20, 2019).
• Linking Aadhaar to Facebook, Twitter: Possible witch-hunt or key to curb crime & fake news? (Taran Deol and Revathi Krishanan; The Print; August 21, 2019).
• AI is biased, you’ll see if you Google ‘hands’ (Rajmohan Sudhakar; Deccan Herald; August 25, 2019).
• Government plans tighter rules for social media brands like Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat (Sunny Sen; CNBC TV 18; August 28, 2019).
• What Centre will tell Supreme Court on Aadhaar and social media account linkage (Amrita Madhukalya; Hindustan Times; August 28, 2019).

Access to Knowledge

Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape.

Wikipedia

Under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation we are doing a project for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

Blog Entry

• Call for joining the Free Knowledge movement #Wikipedia #Wikimedia (Bhuvana Meenakshi; August 19, 2019).

Internet Governance

The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision making procedures and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. As part of internet governance work we work on policy issues relating to freedom of expression primarily focusing on the Information Technology Act and issues of liability of intermediaries for unlawful speech and simultaneously ensuring that the right to privacy is safeguarded as well.

Freedom of Speech & Expression

Under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, CIS is doing research on the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government and contribute studies, reports and policy briefs to feed into the ongoing debates at the national as well as international level. As part of the project we bring you the following outputs:

Participation in Events

• Packets, net neutrality and gaming public policy outcomes (Organized by Has Geek; Bangalore; August 15, 2019). Gurshabad Grover attended Prof. Vishal Misra's lecture on net neutrality.

Privacy

Under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC we are doing a project on surveillance. CIS is researching the history of privacy in India and how it shapes the contemporary debates around technology mediated identity projects like Aadhar. As part of our ongoing research, we bring you the following outputs:

Submission

• Comments on the National Digital Health Blueprint (Samyukta Prabhu, Ambika Tandon, Torsha Sarkar and Aayush Rathi; August 7, 2019).

Participation in Events

• Digital ID Forum 2019 (Organized by UNDP; Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; July 3, 2019). Sunil Abraham was one of the panelists at this event.
• BIS LITD 17 meeting (Organized by Bureau of Indian Standards; New Delhi; July 3, 2019). Gurshabad Grover attended the sixteenth meeting of the Information Systems Security and Biometrics Section Committee (LITD17).
• Facebook Data for Good in Bangalore (Organized by Facebook; Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; July 25, 2019).
• Roundtable with the WhatsApp leadership (Organized by WhatsApp; Mountbatten, The Oberoi, New Delhi; July 26, 2019). Will Cathcart, WhatsApp's new global head, visited India and invited Sunil Abraham for a discussion.
• Facebook Data for Good in New Delhi (Organized by Facebook; University of Chicago Center, New Delhi; July 29, 2019).

IT / Information Technology

A research on the usage of systems (computers and telecommunications) for storing, retrieving and sending information as well as the IT Act:

Research Paper

• Future of Work in the ASEAN (Aayush Rathi , Vedika Pareek , Divij Joshi and Pranav Bidare; edited by Elonnai Hickok and Ambika Tandon with research assistance from Sankalp Srivastava and Anjanaa Aravindan; August 31, 2019).

Participation in Event

• Cyber Policy 2.0 (Organized by National Law University; Bangalore; August 17, 2019). Arindrajit Basu was a speaker.

Artificial Intelligence

With origins dating back to the 1950s Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not necessarily new. However, interest in AI has been rekindled over the recent years due to advancements of technology and its applications to real-world scenarios. We conduct research on the existing legal and regulatory parameters:

Participation in Events

• Emergence of Chinese Technology:Rising stakes for innovation, competition and governance (Organized by Omidyar Network in partnership with the Esya Centre; New Delhi; August 12, 2019). Arindrajit Basu attended the event.
• Impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 - IT and Automotive Sector in India (Organized by the Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; Bangalore; August 21, 2019). Aayush Rathi attended the event.
• Policies for the Platform Economy (Organized by IT for Change; India Habitat Centre; New Delhi; August 30, 2019). Amber Sinha and Anubha Sinha were panelists.

Digital Identity

Omidyar Network is investing in establishment of a three-region research alliance — to be co-led by the Institute for Technology & Society (ITS), Brazil, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) , Kenya, and CIS. As part of this Alliance, we at the CIS will look at the policy objectives of digital identity projects, how technological policy choices can be thought through to meet the objectives, and how legitimate uses of a digital identity framework may be evaluated.

Research Paper

• Design and Uses of Digital Identities - Research Plan (Amber Sinha and Pooja Saxena; August 8, 2019).

Submissions

• The Appropriate Use of Digital Identity (Amber Sinha; August 8, 2019).
• Comments to the ID4D Practitioners’ Guide (Amber Sinha; August 8, 2019).

Participation in Event

• Holding ID Issuers Accountable, What Works? (Organized by Omidyar Network; RightsCon 2019; August 8, 2019).

Researchers@Work

The researchers@work programme at CIS produces and supports pioneering and sustained trans-disciplinary research on key thematics at the intersections of internet and society; organise and incubate networks of and fora for researchers and practitioners studying and making internet in India; and contribute to development of critical digital pedagogy, research methodology, and creative practice.

Participation in Event

• Workshop on Archival Standards and Digitisation Workflow (Organized by British Library; NCBS; Bangalore; August 19 - 20, 2019). P.P. Sneha attended the event.

Blog Entries

• #HookingUp (Akhil Kang, Christina Thomas Dhanraj, Dhrubo Jyoti, and Gowthaman Ranganathan; August 1, 2019).
• Call for Contributions and Reflections: Your experiences in Decolonizing the Internet’s Languages! (P.P. Sneha; August 7, 2019).
• Simiran Lalvani - Workers’ fictive kinship relations in Mumbai app-based food delivery (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; August 16, 2019).

About CIS

CIS is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.

Follow CIS on:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
• Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
• Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
• Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
• E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: [email protected]
• E-Mail - Researchers at Work: [email protected]
• List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

Support CIS:

Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.

Collaborate with CIS:

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at [email protected] (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at [email protected] (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at [email protected].

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.