Internet Governance Blog
Resurrecting the marketplace of ideas
There is no ‘silver bullet’ for regulating content on the web. It requires a mix of legal and empirical analysis.
CIS Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and Expression: Surveillance Industry and Human Rights
CIS responded to the call for submissions from the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and Expression. The submission was on the Surveillance Industry and Human Rights.
Unbox Festival 2019: CIS organizes two Workshops
Centre for Internet & Society organized two workshops at the Unbox Festival 2019, in Bangalore, on 15 and 17 February 2019.
Data Infrastructures and Inequities: Why Does Reproductive Health Surveillance in India Need Our Urgent Attention?
In order to bring out certain conceptual and procedural problems with health monitoring in the Indian context, this article by Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon posits health monitoring as surveillance and not merely as a “data problem.” Casting a critical feminist lens, the historicity of surveillance practices unveils the gendered power differentials wedded into taken-for-granted “benign” monitoring processes. The unpacking of the Mother and Child Tracking System and the National Health Stack reveals the neo-liberal aspirations of the Indian state.
Intermediary liability law needs updating
The time has come for India to exert its foreign policy muscle. There is a less charitable name for intermediary liability regimes like Sec 79 of the IT Act — private censorship regimes.
CIS Comment on ICANN's Draft FY20 Operating Plan and Budget
At the Centre for Internet and Society, we are grateful for the opportunity to provide our comments on the proposed draft of ICANN’s FY20 Operating Plan and Budget along with their Five-Year Operating Plan Update. As part of the public comment process, ICANN provided a list of documents which can be found here that included their highlights of the budget, the total draft budget for FY20, an operating plan segregated by portfolios, amongst others.
The Future of Work in the Automotive Sector in India
This report empirically studies the future of work in the automotive sector in India. The report has been authored by Harsh Bajpai, Ambika Tandon and Amber Sinha. Rakhi Sehgal and Aayush Rathi have edited the report.
Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018
In this response, we aim to examine whether the draft rules meet tests of constitutionality and whether they are consistent with the parent Act. We also examine potential harms that may arise from the Rules as they are currently framed and make recommendations to the draft rules that we hope will help the Government meet its objectives while remaining situated within the constitutional ambit.
CIS Submission to UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation
The UN high-level panel on Digital Cooperation issued a call for inputs that called for responses to various questions. CIS responded to the call for inputs.
CIS Submission to UN High Level Panel on Digital Co-operation
The High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation was convened by the UN Secretary-General to advance proposals to strengthen cooperation in the digital space among Governments, the private sector, civil society, international organizations, academia, the technical community and other relevant stakeholders. The Panel issued a call for input that called for responses to various questions. CIS responded to the call for inputs.
India should reconsider its proposed regulation of online content
The lack of technical considerations in the proposal is also apparent since implementing the proposal is infeasible for certain intermediaries. End-to-end encrypted messaging services cannot “identify” unlawful content since they cannot decrypt it. Presumably, the government’s intention is not to disallow end-to-end encryption so that intermediaries can monitor content.
Response to GCSC on Request for Consultation: Norm Package Singapore
The GCSC opened a public comment procedure to solicit comments and obtain additional feedback. CIS responded to the public call-offering comments on all six norms and proposing two further norms.
The DNA Bill has a sequence of problems that need to be resolved
In its current form, it’s far from comprehensive and fails to adequately address privacy and security concerns.
How to make EVMs hack-proof, and elections more trustworthy
Free and fair elections are the expression of democratic emancipation. India has always led by example: the Nehru Committee sought universal adult franchise in 1928, at a time when France didnât let women vote, and laws in the USA allowed disqualification of poor, illiterate, and African-American voters. But how reliable are our voting systems, particularly in terms of security?
Registering for Aadhaar in 2019
It is a lot less scary registering for Aadhaar in 2019 than it was in 2010, given how the authentication modalities have since evolved.
Economics of Cybersecurity: Literature Review Compendium
The twenty first century has witnessed an unprecedented conflation of everyday experiences and technosocial practices. The emergence of technologies like the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Digital Payment infrastructures are all emblematic of this conflation of technology with economic, social and political modes of existence.
Is the new ‘interception’ order old wine in a new bottle?
The government could always authorise intelligence agencies to intercept and monitor communications, but the lack of clarity is problematic.
Private-public partnership for cyber security
Given the decentralised nature of cyberspace, the private sector will have to play a vital role in enforcing rules for security.
Mapping cybersecurity in India: An infographic
This infographic maps the key stakeholder, areas of focus and threat vectors that impact cybersecurity policy in India. Broadly, policy-makers should concentrate on establishing a framework where individuals feel secure and trust the growing digital ecosystem. The infographic therefore serves as a ready reference point for the research that we have done and hope to continue through our cybersecurity work at CIS.
European E-Evidence Proposal and Indian Law
In April of 2018, the European Union issued the proposal for a new regime dealing with cross border sharing of data and information by issuing two draft instruments, an E-evidence Regulation (“Regulation”) and an E-evidence Directive (“Directive”), (together the “E-evidence Proposal”). The Regulation is a direction to states to put in place the proper legislative and regulatory machinery for the implementation of this regime while the Directive requires the states to enact laws governing service providers so that they would comply with the proposed regime.
