We are anonymous, we are legion

Govt likely to issue guidelines to clarify IT rules soon

praskrishna — 2012-12-20T05:24:14Z

Norms relate to the role of intermediaries such as telcos, Web service providers, others on hosting content online, writes Surabhi Agarwal.

The article was first published in LiveMint on December 16, 2012.

After the government issued guidelines on the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, it is expected to soon come out with similar guidelines to clarify the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011, that have also been heavily criticised.

A senior official of the department of electronics and information technology said that even though the government is not looking at amending the overall Act as the legislative process for that would be time consuming, it is hoping to issue guidelines within a week.

The rules were notified in April 2011 with the aim of clearly defining the role of intermediaries—including telcos, Internet and web-hosting service providers and search engines—while hosting content on their networks and websites along with ensuring some level of due diligence by them.

However, this led to outrage among the Internet community as the rules mandated hosts or owners of the websites to take action against “objectionable content” within 36 hours of receiving a complaint. Experts argued that the rules could lead to censorship attempts with some intermediaries complying with illegitimate requests to remove content from websites in a bid to avoid litigation.

The government official said that there had been some confusion about what it meant to take action within 36 hours.

“While the intent was to ensure that intermediaries take cognizance of the request and initiate some proceeding on it, it has been misconstrued as removing content within 36 hours in some cases,” this person said.

The official added that the government was looking at clarifying issues such as this. “We are currently studying the representations sent by different stakeholders on the rules.”

Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), said that the term “act” should be replaced by “acknowledge” to ensure that it is not wrongly interpreted as removing content within 36 hours.

“We have also requested the time period to be extended to 72 hours as 36 hours is sometimes too short a period if it falls during the weekend,” he said.

While only some clauses address issues such as national interest, public order and security restrictions under which content can be removed, “the remainder of grounds includes private claims such as content which ‘belongs to another person’, or otherwise infringes proprietary rights, or is ‘defamatory’,” said Bangalore-based think tank Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in its representation, of which Mint has a copy. Moreover, other terms, such as ‘grossly harmful’, ‘harassing’ and ‘disparaging’, are “terminologically indeterminate and purely subjective”, the representation said. It also said that “the intermediary guidelines create a two-track system by which private censorship is legitimized online”.

IAMAI’s recommendations include clearly defining who can qualify as the ‘affected person’ eligible to post a complaint on content, which has currently been left to the discretion and determination of the intermediary.

Ray’s representation also said the rules put the burden of interpretation and acting upon third-party content on the intermediary. “This, we believe is the function of the judiciary and not the intermediaries,” it said.

Guidelines, while bringing some initial clarity, may not be enough, said an executive at a top technology firm who did not want to be identified. “To ensure long-term solutions to some of the issues highlighted, the Act needs to be amended eventually,” he said.

Late last month, the government promised to issue guidelines to the states that complaints under the controversial Section 66A of the IT Act, which criminalizes “causing annoyance or inconvenience” online or electronically, can be registered only with the permission of an officer at or above the rank of deputy commissioner of police, and inspector general in metro cities. However, even in the case of Section 66A, it did not amend the terms in the Section that are said to be vague and subject to interpretation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/livemint-december-16-2012-surabhi-agarwal-govt-likely-to-issue-guidelines-to-clarify-it-rules-soon

Govt in line of fire over web censorship

praskrishna — 2012-08-25T03:13:19Z

Social media abuzz with allegations of government gagging free speech in the garb of curbing hate messages.

This article by Surabhi Agarwal was published in LiveMint on August 24, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

The government is once again in the line of fire over web censorship, with allegations rampant on social media Thursday that it was gagging free speech in the garb of containing hate messages that had led to communal violence and a panic exodus by people from the north-eastern states in some cities.

According to a list first published on its website by The Economic Times, Twitter accounts of some journalists including Kanchan Gupta, a former columnist of the Pioneer newspaper, Shiv Aroor, deputy editor at the Headlines Today news channel, and those of some individuals associated with and sympathetic to right-wing causes have been blocked.

The block wasn’t in place for some of the accounts late Thursday, although this could have been because some internet service providers were slow to follow the government’s orders.

There was outrage on social media, especially on Twitter where #Emergency2012 and #GOIBlocks quickly became top trending topics on the micro-blogging website for India.

“Was it wrong to seek help of Indians for the victims of Assam Riots? Is it a crime in India if you help your fellow citizens in need?” tweeted Anil Kohli, whose account Twitanic is also on the list of blocked Twitter accounts.

Pravin Togadia, international working president of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, tweeted: “Some say Gvt blocked my twitter account, some say this, some say that! It is my REAL twitter account. Block TRUTH & there will be 1000M Togadias!”

The government has issued four orders over the last one week to block over 300 web pages. According to a post by Pranesh Prakash of the Centre for Internet and Society, 33% of them were on Facebook, 28% on Google Inc.’s YouTube and around 10% on Twitter.com.

Prakash told Mint that there may be a case of excessive censorship in the damage-control exercise following the communal violence and the scaremongering that followed but the motives do not seem political. “Both Kanchan Gupta and Swapan Dasgupta seem to be having a right wing ideology, but while the former’s account is blocked the latter’s is not,” Prakash said. “The difference is on the kind of content which has been posted.”

While he would accuse the government of not taking sufficient care while drawing up the list, he couldn’t accuse it of trying to curb media freedom. “It is too far (fetched) an accusation and I am not making it.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-livemint-com-aug-24-2012-surabhi-agarwal-govt-in-line-of-fire-over-web-censorship

Govt goes after porn, makes ISPs ban sites

praskrishna — 2013-07-01T10:11:29Z

The government has decided to put a blanket ban on several websites that allow users to share pornographic content.

The article by Javed Anwer was published in the Times of India on June 26, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

In an order dated June 13, department of telecom (DoT) has directed internet service providers (ISPs) to block 39 websites. Most of them are web forums, where internet users share images and URLs to download pornographic files. But some of these websites are also image hosts and file hosts, mostly used to store and share files that are non-pornographic.

While watching or distributing child pornography is illegal in India, watching adult pornography is not banned. The blocked websites are hosted outside India and claim to operate under the 18 USC 2257 rule enforced by the US. The rule specifies that producers of pornographic material are required to retain records showing performers were over 18 years of age at the time of video or image shoot.

The DoT order doesn't specify any reason or law under which the websites have been blocked. It says, "It has been decided to immediately block the access to the following URLs... you are accordingly directed to immediately block the access to above URLs."

If a user visits the blocked website, he/she is either shown a blank page or a message telling "this website has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to court orders or on the directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications".

A senior DoT official, who pleaded anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the department was just following the orders issued by cyber security coordination committee and hence could not talk about the specific reasons behind the block.

Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a Bangalore-based organization, says blocking of pornographic website is overreach on the part of the government.

"In the case of file hosts and image hosts, which people use for various purposes including for storing personal files, the DoT order is a clear overreach," said Sunil Abraham, director of CIS. "Even in the case of pornography, there is nothing in the IT Act that can be used to block websites hosted outside in India."

He added, "There is a possibility that government is interpreting some sections of the IT Act to suit its purpose but I feel that is wrong and should be challenged in the court by ISPs if they care about the rights of their users."

Rajesh Chharia, president of Internet Service Providers Association of India, said that it was not possible for ISPs to pushback orders from DoT. "We are the licensee and we have to operate under the laws... we can't pushback," he said.

"But I feel ideally the government should ask the people who have produced objectionable content to remove it from the web if these people are in India... If they are outside, the websites should be blocked at the international cable landing stations. Involving 150-odd ISPs to implement an order is not the right way to do it," added Chharia.

Though IT Act doesn't criminalize watching porn, the new rules notified in 2011 have certain provisions that show the government wants to dictate what people watch or do not watch on the web. For example, the rules ask an intermediary like an ISP to "inform users of computer resources not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, and transmit any information that is obscene and pornographic".

The rules meant for cyber cafe owners specify that they "shall display a board, clearly visible to the users, prohibiting them from viewing pornographic sites as well as copying or downloading information which is prohibited under the law".

Abraham says that going after pornographic websites, and that too in a non-transparent manner, serves no purpose.

"I have travelled to China and Middle East and have seen that people access pornographic websites using various web tools. In fact, by banning websites the governments have made it more alluring for users to watch and access pornography," he said. None of the western democracies have explicit ban on pornography.

Abraham added that Indian government should also be more transparent about blocking websites because the current method was prone to abuse. "They should notify owner of the blocked website, clearly tell web users why a website is getting blocked and tell public how many websites they have blocked."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-javed-anwer-june-26-2013-govt-goes-after-porn-makes-isps-ban-sites

Govt cracks down on Twitter

praskrishna — 2012-08-25T02:09:42Z

India’s crackdown on social media platforms for hosting “inflammatory” content — following the violence in Assam and the exodus of northeastern people from several cities — seems to have been a little reckless.

Published in the Hindustan Times on August 24, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

The government’s order to internet service providers to block 310 webpages between August 18-21 goes beyond blocking doctored images and videos uploaded to incite passions. Instead, it seeks to block 16 Twitter handles, including those of VHP leader Pravin Togadia and two journalists and even reportage of sectarian violence in international and domestic news websites.

“Block TRUTH & there will be 1000M Togadias!” Togadia tweeted, as the virtual world erupted in protests.

The home ministry insisted it had not asked for individual Twitter handles to be blocked, only for removal of malicious content.

Earlier in the day, the micro-blogging site opened dialogue with the government but sought clarifications before taking a call on blocking content.

"Twitter has promised to cooperate on handles resembling the PMO's," said communications adviser to the PM Pankaj Pachouri, emphasising that the PMO's only demand is that Twitter handle the case in accordance with its rules.

Also on the government's block list are blogs in India and Pakistan that tried to educate web surfers about the morphed photos. One was apparently written by a government officer in Mumbai.

Critics slammed the government for its "ham-handed" and "artless" handling of the situation, which they said came after the morphed images and videos had already done damage.

The Bangalore-headquartered Centre for Internet & Society said the "goodness of the government's intentions seems unquestionable" but it appears to have gone overboard and not by the book.

"The blocking was done without due process of law," Pranesh Prakash at CIS observed. He argued that the government should have engaged with the social media platforms since a majority —217 out of 310 —of the block orders were aimed at Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-hindustantimes-com-aug-24-2012-govt-cracks-down-on-twitter

Govt cracks down on cyber jehad network, blocks access to 32 websites

praskrishna — 2015-01-03T03:29:21Z

The Modi government is starting the New Year with the resolve to wipe out terror and it has cracked down on websites that have been carrying anti-India views and spreading the propaganda of the Islamic State (IS).

The article published in India Today on January 1, 2015 quotes Pranesh Prakash.

Reacting to an alert from the antiterror squad of a state police department, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has blocked access to 32 websites. The DoT order that was tweeted by Pranesh Prakash, policy director of the Bangalore-based research organisation, said that 32 URLs have been blocked under section 69 of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.

The order was reportedly issued on December 16 and it was shared on Twitter on Wednesday. GitHub, Archive.org, Imgur, Vimeo, Daily Motion, Pastebin, sourceforge, justpaste, cryptbin were among the sites that were blocked.

As reports emerged on the ban of these sites, there was outrage on Twitter on the issue of internet censorship. However, most of the websites mentioned in the list that were to be blocked were accessible. Pastebin and Internet Archive, two websites that have reportedly been blocked, tweeted their views.

"If you are from India and unable to visit Pastebin, please email us," Pastebin tweeted on December 19. Internet Archive tweeted on December 31 that they too received complaints from users in India who can't access its website.

Reacting to the outrage, Arvind Gupta, national head of the BJP IT Cell took to Twitter and said that these sites have been blocked after an alert from an anti-terrorism squad that most of them were carrying anti-India content from the Islamic State (IS).

"We should congratulate the government for taking a preventive and precautionary step in a proactive manner based on an advisory," Gupta told Mail Today.

He added that he does not have any details of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) order and only reacted to the Twitter debate on the subject.

Intelligence agencies have been struggling to monitor terror activities on cyber space. There have been reports of terror groups using social media to attract young minds to jehadi ideology.

The recent arrest of Bangalore-based executive Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who was operating a Twitter handle under the the name @ShamiWitness and promoting the views of the Islamic State, has come as a wake-up call for security agencies. Biswas, an engineer working as a "manufacturing executive" with ITC Foods, was nabbed from his rented oneroom apartment after a news report stated that his was the most popular IS Twitter account with close to 17,000 followers, and his tweets were getting viewed over two lakh times a month.

Sources said there are close to 30,000 such Twitter handles and other social media forums along with websites that are spewing venom, and little can be done to monitor all of them and act on time. With cyber threat becoming a clear and present danger, the Centre has decided to set up a highlevel committee to only monitor social media and cyber space. Counter-terror officials believe that the jehadi nexus has a huge bearing on India as youth active on social media are vulnerable to the propaganda being carried out online.

Other than @ShamiWitness, there are Twitter handles such as @MagnetGas with radical views and pro-IS tone that are now under the lens. What is disturbing is that many such sites are India-specific and some are believed to be handled by Indians.

"If there is misuse of Internet and social media, it needs to be dealt with legally. The Internet is like a public place, so if there are extreme views, the state needs to exercise its powers," says D.C. Pathak, former chief of the Intelligence Bureau.

This is not the first time that the DoT has clamped down on websites for promoting "objectionable" content. In June 2013, 39 websites that allowed users to share pornographic content were reportedly blocked.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india-today-january-1-2015-govt-cracks-down-on-cyber-jehad-network-blocks-access-to-32-websites

Govt blocks 32 websites, including Vimeo and Github

praskrishna — 2015-01-02T16:09:24Z

The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti Terrorism Squad, and were carrying anti-India content from ISIS.

The article by Moulishree Srivastava was published in Livemint on December 31, 2014. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.

The Indian government has blocked access to 32 websites based on the advice of an anti-terrorism team. The blocked URLs (uniform resource locator, an address to any website on the Internet) include files, videos and source code-sharing websites such as dailymotion.com, github.com, vimeo.com and archive.org.

In an order, tweeted by Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Bengaluru-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society on Wednesday, the department of telecom said the 32 URLs had been blocked under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and under Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. “The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti Terrorism Squad, and were carrying anti-India content from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria),” Arvind Gupta, head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology cell, said in a message on Twitter.

His tweet came in response to a backlash to the move from Internet users. “The sites that have removed objectionable content and/or cooperated with the ongoing investigations, are being unblocked,” he added. If Internet service providers (ISPs) don’t comply with the demand, they are liable to being penalized, the order said.

The rules give the central government powers to block access to information if it is in the interest of the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above.” Intermediaries failing to comply with the rules are punishable with fines and prison terms of up to seven years, it notes. “Pastebin is still blocked in India.

We are getting many reports about this. The Indian government has blocked us...,” said one of the source code sharing websites, Pastebin.com, in a tweet. This is not the first time the government has cracked down on websites. A recent report by Freedom House, an independent watchdog, said the information ministry received a total of 130 court orders to block Web content between February 2009 and December 2013.

In February 2014, the then minister of communication and information technology told Parliament that 62 URLs were blocked in 2013 under Section 69A for hosting objectionable information with the potential to disturb public order. As many as 82 URLs were blocked on 18 September 2013 in addition to 26 blocked a week earlier after violence escalated between Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. A total of 362 URLs were blocked in response to communal violence in the northeast, the report said. “The problem isn’t just about the specific sites that are blocked; the prob(lem) always about the bad law...,” tweeted Prakash. “The 69A rules don’t allow for transparency, accountability, time-limits on blocks, etc. So easily misused by govt. + courts + individuals.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-december-31-2014-moulishree-srivastava-govt-blocks-32-websites

Govt asks CBI to probe Cambridge Analytica in data breach case

Admin — 2018-07-29T01:47:01Z

Centre directs social media platforms to take prompt action against fake messages

The article by Komal Gupta was published in Livemint on July 27, 2018. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

The government has written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking an enquiry into London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, and asked all social media platforms to take prompt action against fake messages, including tracing their origin. Cambridge Analytica is at the centre of a Facebook data breach row, including those of around 562,000 Indian users.

“It is suspected that Cambridge Analytica may have been involved in illegally obtaining data of Indians which could be misused. The government has entrusted this issue to be investigated by the CBI for possible violation of Information Technology Act, 2000 and IPC,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, electronics and IT minister in response to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha on “Misuse of social media platforms and propagation of fake news causing unrest and violence.”

Media platforms have been directed to work with Indian officials to receive grievance in real time and also inform law enforcement agencies.

“They (social media platforms) will have to ensure that their platforms do not become vehicles of promoting hatred, terrorism money laundering, mob violence and rumour mongering,” said Prasad.

Over the last couple of months, there have been several instances of data breach and fake messages being circulated through social media platforms.

In March, after the data of Indians was allegedly compromised through Facebook by Cambridge Analytica, the government issued notices to the two companies and sought their response. According to Prasad, Facebook responded that it will streamline its internal processes on handling of personal data and Cambridge Analytica violated its platform policies. Cambridge Analytica had said that data of Indians was not breached but this was not in conformity with what was reported by Facebook.

After initial responses, Cambridge Analytica stopped responding to letters from the IT ministry after which the government ordered a CBI probe into the matter. Over the last month, a spate of mob lynchings has been reported from several states, including Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura, Jharkhand and West Bengal, following fake messages spread through Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp.

According to Prasad, the government is initiating measures to increase awareness about fake news with the support of all stakeholders.

On 19 July, the government directed WhatsApp to come out with more effective solutions that can bring in accountability and facilitate enforcement of law in addition to their efforts to label forwards and identify fake news. After this, the social media giant limited forward messages to five chats at once instead of multiple chats at once.

“It now plans to the remove forward button (icon) adjacent to a video or audio message. They also plan to bring fact checking and fake news verification mechanism,” added Prasad.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that would clearly mark forwarded messages in a move aimed at curbing the spread of rumours.

As of March, there were more than 460 million Indian users of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has issued a number of advisories on incidents of lynching by mobs fuelled by rumours of lifting/kidnapping of children and cyber crime prevention and control. It has also constituted a group of ministers and a high level committee to formulate appropriate measures to address mob violence and lynchings in the country.

“The government doesn’t seem to have understood the meaning of ‘abetment’ under the IPC, nor does it seem to understand the protections afforded to intermediaries like messaging platforms under section 79 of the Information Technology Act. Messaging platforms like WhatsApp cannot legally be held to be abettors, plain and simple,”said Pranesh Prakash, fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based think tank.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-july-27-2018-komal-gupta-govt-asks-cbi-to-probe-cambridge-analytica-in-data-breach-case

Government's stand on internet governance draws applause from civil society organisations

praskrishna — 2015-06-29T15:40:07Z

India's decision to support the multistakeholder model of internet governance has drawn mostly applause from civil society organisations and individuals who have been following the issue, even as they cautioned that implementation will determine the success of the model.

The article by Neha Alawadhi was published in Economic Times on June 24, 2015. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

A day after communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India will support the multistakeholder model, reactions poured in on Tuesday, largely hailing the move to break the longstanding status quo on the issue.

"What matters now is how the approach articulated by the minister is translated into coordinated action across various fora, including ICANN, BRICS, and perhaps most crucially the UN WSIS+10 Review Process, which culminates in the meeting of the UN General Assembly in December 2015," said Vinay Kesari, a lawyer specialising in ICT and internet governance.

Not just at international fora, India also needs to figure out tistakeholder stand within the country, said Arun Mohan Sukumar, senior fellow at the Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University. "Multistakeholderism is very attractive in principle but, as the ICANN experience shows, it is susceptible to concerns like elite capture and lack of accountability to the general public," he said.

Prasad made the announcement in a video address during the opening ceremony of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)'s 53rd public meeting in Buenos Aires on Monday. ICANN manages the Domain Name System (DNS), which helps organise the internet with the allotment of domain names such as .com, .org and .net and has often come under the scanner for not being transparent enough.

The multistakeholder model involves all stakeholders such as businesses, civil society, governments, research institutions and non-governmental organisations in the dialogue, decision-making and implementation of policymaking and governance.

The external affairs ministry, telecom department and the department of electronics and IT have long held divergent views on issues of internet governance, with no clear stand being made at international platforms. While welcoming the announcement, Sunil Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Internet and Society, said the minister could have explained in greater detail, especially the ongoing transition of internet governance control from US government to a multistakeholder model.

"He also spoke about government being responsible for security and human rights over the internet, which adds to the confusion over whether India will really let the internet be a fair and free medium," he said.

Prasanth Sugathan, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Centre, said the government should seek the views of other stakeholders as well on the issue. "When you talk of multistakeholderism, it should not be only at an international level. It should also happen at a national level. The government should have other parties also contributing to issues of internet governance," he said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-june-24-2015-neha-alawadhi-govts-stand-on-internet-governance-draws-applause-from-civil-society-organisations

Government washes hands of Google's new privacy policy

praskrishna — 2012-04-10T09:40:55Z

The government has more or less washed its hands of internet giant Google's new privacy policy that is being criticised in Europe and elsewhere, but wants Indian residents to watch out for themselves, writes Jayadevan in this article published in the Economic Times on April 10, 2012.

Google's new privacy policy provides information on how personal information is collected, processed and secured, as required by relevant Indian laws. "The end users, however, need to fully understand the privacy policy of Google, the consequences of sharing their personal information and their privacy rights before they start using online services," Sachin Pilot, India's minister for information technology, stated in Rajya Sabha on March 30.

Ever since Google came out with a unified privacy policy in January, it has been facing criticism from many users and privacy advocates, especially in Europe where privacy is a fundamental right. The new policy unified separate privacy polices relating to nearly 60 of Google's services.

The new policy also lets the separate Google services, such as Gmail, Google Search or Youtube, share data among each other. In Europe, Google is facing potential sanctions or even fine over its new privacy policy.

Section 43A of the India's amended Information Technology Act (2000) has established a legal framework for data privacy protection in the country. The rules notified last year explain security practices to be followed and the need for guarding sensitive personal information. The Act also requires Indian corporations to publish a privacy policy.

"Google has published a Privacy Policy on their website," said the minister. "Any change in the privacy policy is not within the purview of amended Information Technology Act 2000," Pilot added. Venkatesh Hariharan (Venky), head of public policy and government affairs at Google India, has left the company last month and did not want to comment.

According to the Pilot, while France's independent privacy watchdog, the CNIL (nationale de I'informatique et des libertes) has said that the changes to Google's privacy policy do not comply with the European law, rectification of conflict between Google, an American company and European directive on data protection is not within the purview of the Indian government.

CNIL, the data protection watchdog in France had asked Google to answer 69 questions including what it does with the data collected from users and how long it is retained to better understand the consequences of the new policy for Google users.

Experts agree Google privacy policy is in compliance with Sec 43A of IT Act but cautioned that it may not be enough. "Section 43A does not have all the privacy safeguards that exist for citizen in developed countries," said Sunil Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Internet and Society.

Abraham advocates the creation of a privacy commissioner. "It is important to have a independent and autonomous regulator who can respond on a proactive basis when confronted with evidence of abusive practices," he said.

Legal provisions will have to enable the creation of such a regulator, says cyber law expert Vakul Sharma. "You can not create a regulator out of thin air. You should have legislation for privacy. In India we do not have any such legislation," said Sharma.

The IT act classifies information into two - personal information and sensitive personal information. Safeguards under the section 43A and rules apply to sensitive personal information which includes biometric information, information related to health, passwords, sexual orientation and financial information among others.

"Users must be aware that Google's new policy does not have room for categorization according to Indian laws," says Sharma. "It is a plain vanilla document. The users need more," he added.

Read the original published in the Economic Times on April 10, 2012. Sunil Abraham is quoted in it.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/govt-washes-hands-of-google-privacy-policy

Government to hold talks with stakeholders on Internet censorship

praskrishna — 2012-09-04T03:39:32Z

In an unprecedented move, the government, through the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, has agreed to initiate dialogue on Internet censorship with mega Internet companies, social media giants such as Google and Facebook, members of civil society, technical community, media, ISPs and legal experts.

This article by Shalini Singh was published in the Hindu on September 4, 2012. Pranesh Prakash's analysis is quoted.

The triggers for the discussion, which will be held on Wednesday, are the riots in Assam, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the mass exodus of north-east Indians from Bangalore, which resulted in bringing the government, civil society organisations and the media to a flashpoint.

Two of India’s seniormost officers in the area of Internet censorship, DoT Secretary R. Chandrashekhar and Director General, CERT-IN, Gulshan Rai will engage with a range of stakeholders in a two-hour meeting titled ‘Legitimate Restrictions on Freedom of Online Speech: The need for balance – from Deadlock to Dialogue.’

Other panellists include representatives from Google and Facebook; Pranesh Prakash from the Centre for Internet and Society (a civil society group); Prabir Purkayasta, Delhi Science Forum (technical community); Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, president, Foundation for Media Professionals; Rajesh Chharia, president, Internet Service Providers Association of India; and Apar Gupta, an advocate dealing with cyber issues.

One analysis by the CIS has shown that 309 specific items, including URLs, Twitter accounts, IMG tags, blog posts and blogs were blocked. Complaints arose when blocking a page resulted in the blocking of an entire website — which has scores or hundreds of web pages. The government maintained that this was necessary as there was a sense of crisis. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde insisted that the government was “taking strict action only against those accounts or people which are causing damage or spreading rumours.” However, the collateral damage of the move was the Twitter accounts of several people, including journalists like Kanchan Gupta, being blocked.

“Mass censorship is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Rather than blocking the sites, the government should have used the same media, Facebook, Twitter and Google to counter terrorism and hate speech. I am glad that they are now open to dialogue,” says Mr. Thakurta.

“It is an extremely productive move as it will generate awareness among content providers, government and users. In the absence of any dialogue, everyone was just sticking to their own positions without listening to the other stakeholders’ point of view,” says Mr. Chharia.

The meeting is to bring several stakeholders in dialogue on a single platform.

Nearly 50 other experts from industry, mobile service providers, Internet companies, intermediaries, academia and some international organisations as well as multilaterals are expected to join the conference, which will be held at 2.30 p.m. on September 4 at FICCI.

While this is seen as a brave attempt by some, there are an equal number of sceptics who believe that the discussion may not yield the desired result given the national security objectives governing law enforcement agencies on the one hand and the desire of users, media and civil society to preserve free speech on the other. Clearly, ISPs, Internet companies and social media are in a tough spot since they face legal obligations on legitimate orders for blocking on one hand while needing to protect their user privacy and rights to unhindered access to information.

If successful, it is possible that this dialogue will ensure that legitimate restrictions do not slide into illegitimate censorship.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-the-hindu-com-shalini-singh-sep-4-2012-govt-to-hold-talks-with-stakeholders-on-internet-censorship

Government plans tighter rules for social media brands like Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat

Sunny Sen — 2019-08-28T15:11:38Z

The government is planning to impose higher levels of accountability on social media platforms as it grapples with the problem of bringing about order in a fast-growing industry where regulations are still nebulous.

The blog post by Sunny Sen was published by CNBC TV 18 on August 28, 2019. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

One important measure it is considering is to tell social media brands such as TikTok, Facebook and ShareChat that they will be legally liable for content that they have had a hand in either creating or curating.

Which means that even if there is the slightest fingerprint of a social media company on a piece of content, platforms cannot claim to be mere intermediaries and disclaim responsibility for consequences.

“Social media companies can’t bring out original content or they should take responsibility for them,” said a senior government source, explaining the centre’s thinking on the issue.

The explosion increase in user-generated content, especially short videos, has become a regulation headache for the authorities. When user-generated social media content crosses the bounds of decency, spreads hate or propagates fake news, intermediary status also confers legal immunity because the platforms can claim they do not know what the user is putting up unless an individual or software raises a red flag.

While in the case of traditional media such as newspapers and television there is editorial control over what is printed or goes on air, social media is still a free-for-all world. Social media companies have so far argued that they are only intermediaries, and users generate content over which they have no control. But in practice, it is not all that clear-cut.

“Safe harbour is for non-curated content,” said Subho Ray, President of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). “Safe harbour is not applicable to platform, but to the piece of content. If the content is curated by a company they can’t claim safe harbour because if you are curating it or have exclusive rights over it, you have seen it.”

The government is also considering to stop intermediaries from having exclusive user-generated content on the platform.

“Discussions are on, but there is no decision on that yet,” said another source.

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of Bangalore-based research organisation, Centre for Internet and Society, said, “An intermediary is providing a two-sided market. If they participate in that market there could be competition harms.”

For context, TikTok owned by Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance sent a notice to ShareChat to take down content for which the former had signed exclusive rights. ShareChat took it off, but also sent a letter to Ajay Sawhney, Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), on August 23, copy of which is with Moneycontrol, asking for clarity on laws governing intermediaries.

“Instead of acting as intermediaries (that are protected by safe harbour liability exemptions), such exclusivity deals result in these platforms being considered broadcasters or streaming services (and therefore directly liable for the nature of the content distributed by them),” Berges Y. Malu, Head of Public Policy and Policy Communications at Mohalla Technology Pvt. Ltd. (owners of ShareChat) wrote in the letter.

TikTok engages with users who can promote the platform and teach other users on how use it. It also encourages and incentivises content creation by some of these users, but does not exercise any editorial control over content creation. “TikTok may enter into a mutual contractual agreement with some creators, where TikTok may enjoy certain exclusivity rights over the content of these creators,” said a TikTok spokesperson commenting of ShareChat sending a letter to the government. “In this regard, TikTok has undertaken legal action as part of its commitment to protect its users from copyright infringement.”

But, there is a catch there. “They can claim all rights. Because the user had granted such a liberal license. But the user as the copyright holder can license it again and again to multiple parties because these licenses are non-exclusive,” said Abraham.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cnbc-tv-18-august-28-2019-government-plans-tighter-rules-for-social-media-brands-like-facebook-tiktok-sharechat

Government may tieup with global police, Interpol to fight child pornography

praskrishna — 2015-09-27T10:25:44Z

International partnerships, including with the global police network Interpol, could be the basis for India's strategy to counter child pornography after the government's move to ban websites peddling smut backfired last month.

The article by Surabhi Agarwal was published in the Economic Times on September 3, 2015. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The new approach by the ministry of communications and information technology mirrors the system adopted by developed countries, government officials said, representing a targetted attack on child pornography instead of the recent fiasco when the authorities backtracked in the face of protests after banning 857 websites.

Once it comes on board as a partner, the International Criminal Police Organization will alert India about production, distribution or broadcast of child pornographic content regularly. India will also have access to an Interpol database known as the 'worst of ' list of domains with content containing child sexual abuse.

"The country is not divided on the issue of child pornography and the government has made a policy statement that it will deal with the problem firmly. So that will be guiding the entire action," a senior government official said. The person said that the government is still studying the model and a call will be taken soon.

A partnership with the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation, which maintains a database on child pornography and collaborates with the British government, is also being considered.

Interpol manages a database which uses sophisticated image comparison software to make connections between victims and places. The foundation also maintains a similar database which is constantly updated. It sends alerts to members twice each day.

"That's the global best practice," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore based advocacy group Centre for Internet and Society. "There is no reason for us to reinvent anything; we should just adopt the best practice with some improvements." For a long time, the government and Internet service providers have been passing the buck to each other on this issue, arguing that they don't have the wherewithal to create a database on such content and block it. "This is because as per the Indian laws, anyone who looks at such content even with the motive of blocking it is committing a punishable offense," said Abraham. In August the government said it was banning 857 pornographic websites, only to backtrack amidst widespread criticism and a rap from the Supreme Court. Almost all the websites have been unblocked now with the exception of a few which allegedly contain child pornographic content.

During the hearing in the Supreme Court, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said that it is impossible for an ISP to block pornographic sites without orders from the court or department of telecom and that the task of identifying such websites should not be the domain of internet service providers. A decision on the issue will work in the government's favour since the next hearing in the matter is slated for October. "Once the country has access to some list which is authentic and verified, regular action can be taken," a government official said.

As per initial discussions, the dominant point of view is for ISPAI to be the point of contact between the government and international organisations. It will be tasked with vetting the list and receiving blocking orders from the telecom department so that further action can be taken.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-september-3-2015-surabhi-agarwal-govt-tie-up-with-global-police-interpol-to-fight-child-pornography

Government keeps experts out of cyber security discussions

praskrishna — 2016-04-24T05:03:34Z

The article by Amrita Madhukalya was published in DNA on April 23, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

During India's closed-door discussions on cyber security and Internet policies at the recently-concluded Russia-India-China (RIC) convention, Internet experts fear that the government may be trying to leave out discussions with social stakeholders like social activists, businessmen or the academia. It must be borne in mind that telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in an ICAN meet last year stressed on the role of the government in cyber-security policy measures, despite the need to have an Internet largely unregulated by the government.

Anja Kovacs of the Internet Democracy project feels that India has given away too much, and that India's multi-stakeholder approach in the context of the role of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is not too clear. "Russia and China have traditionally, since the 90s, wanted a bigger role for the ITU, despite a pushback from the West. The ITU has had a positive role in the recent past. Yet, when they mention multilateralism, the scope for developing nations is not too wide. The US may have the scope to include several stakeholders from the business community, civil society and academia, but how much scope does a developing country have," says Anja, adding that the mention of internationalising, too, is problematic.

The grouping of the three countries could also be to signal an alliance to counter the US's efforts to ensure the exemption of the UK from the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) system which is headquartered in the United States, says Chinmayi Arun, policy director at the Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi. Under the MLAT process, any request about data that originates in case of a criminal breach from a country is usually routed via US's department of justice, which takes time while following due processes.

"The concerns expressed, understandably, on the growing concerns of cyber terrorism and the efforts to deal with it are needed, but there is no need to exclude other stakeholders in the process," said Chinmayi. "Russia and China have also been pushing for a growing role of the state in policing the government, and are keen to use the UN to facilitate that."

Nikhil Pahwa of Medianama, who steer-headed the net neutrality movement by engaging several stakeholders, says that the government's stance is unclear, as it speaks of both multilateralism and multiple stakeholders, as both are contradictory.

Pranesh Prakash of the Centre for Internet and Society says that he is sceptical of the sentiments expressed on internationalisation of internet governance.

"For instance, there's been a two-year process via which the US's oversight over ICANN and the IANA functions are nominally being removed. But Russia, India, and China have not really pushed for internationalisation, and ICANN and the Internet's root zone system is going to remain subject to US jurisdiction, including US sanctions. If the ministers truly meant what they say, they should intervene in that process and say that we need to internationalise ICANN in practice and spirit, not just in name," he said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-amrita-madhukalya-april-23-2016-government-keeps-experts-out-of-cyber-security-discussions

Government Gives Nod To Bill For Building DNA Databases In India, For 'Criminal Investigation And Justice Delivery'

Admin — 2018-07-13T15:25:13Z

The bill will be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon session.

The article was published in the Huffington Post on July 5, 2018. Elonnai Hickok was quoted.

The government has set the path for creating a DNA bank storing citizen's profiles, as the Union Cabinet cleared a bill for the regulation and use of DNA for policing. The bill is meant to regulate the use of DNA for criminal investigation and justice delivery, and has provisions for the storage of genetic information. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2018 was passed in a cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and seeks to expand the use of DNA to help solve crimes, identify missing persons, and determine biological relationships between people. It will be introduced in Parliament during the Monsoon Session beginning July 18.

Although the bill includes safeguards on how this data is meant to be used, it's worth pointing out that India still does not have any laws regarding data protection and privacy. The Justice BN Srikrishna Committee on data protection, which was formed in August 2017, was expected to present its report months ago, and there were strong leaks that it would come out in June. However, the report remains under wraps, and there there is no clarity about its recommendations. That's also only the first step, as it has to then be taken up by the government and made into a law.

Scientists who had helped draft the DNA Technology bill told The Telegraph that expanding the use of DNA in criminal investigations could lead to higher conviction rates, especially in cases of murder, rape or human trafficking, among other crimes involving the human body.

"We rely on DNA for two things - it helps establish beyond doubt the biological identity of an individual and it helps beyond doubt to determine whether there is any biological relationship between two persons," said Jayaraman Gowrishankar, former director and now an Indian National Science Academy senior scientist at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad.

According to NDTV, there is also a provision for a jail term of up to three years for anyone who leaks information from one of the DNA databases being created, along with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh. People seeking this information through illegal means face the same punishment.

In other countries, DNA profiles are also used for a number of businesses such as health care, ancestry information, and even DNA-based custom diet plans. However, the draft DNA bill states that the data collected can only be used for the identification of a person, and not other uses.

However, the accuracy of DNA testing in crime scenes has also been called into question over time. The possibility of cross contamination is incredibly high, and has led to innocent people going to prison.

Writing on the subject for The Hindustan Times, Elonnai Hickok, Director, Internet Governance at the Centre for Internet and Society added: "Policy needs to evolve past protections that are limited to process oriented legal privacy provisions, but instead to protections that are comprehensive — accounting for process and enabling the individual to control and know how her/ his data is being used and by whom. Other countries have recognised this and are taking important steps to empower the individual. India needs to do the same for its citizens."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/huffington-post-july-5-2018-government-gives-nod-to-bill-for-building-dna-databases-in-india-for-criminal-investigation-and-justice-delivery

Government gives free publicity worth 40k to Twitter and Facebook

Akriti Bopanna — 2018-04-27T09:52:26Z

We conducted a 2 week survey of newspapers for links between government advertisement to social media giants. As citizens, we should be worried about the close nexus between the Indian government and digital behemoths such as Facebook, Google and Twitter. It has become apparent to us after a 2 week print media analysis that our Government has been providing free publicity worth Rs 40,000 to these entities. There are multiple issues with this as this article attempts at pointing out.

We analyzed 5 English language newspapers daily for 2 weeks from March 12^th to 26^th, one week of the newspapers in Lucknow and the second week in Bangalore. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Alphabet backed services such as Youtube and Google Plus were part of our survey. Of a total of 33 advertisements (14 in Lucknow+19 in Bangalore), Twitter stands out as the most prominent advertising platform used by government agencies with 30 ads but Facebook at 29 was more expensive. In order to ascertain the rates of publicity, current advertisement rates for Times of India as our purpose was to solely give a rough estimation of how much the government is spending.

Advertising of this nature is not merely an inherent problem of favoring some social media companies over others but also symptomatic of a bigger problem, the lack of our native e-governance mechanisms which cause the Government to rely and promote others. Where we do have guidelines they are not being followed. By outsourcing their e-governance platforms to Twitter such as TwitterSeva, a feature created by the Twitter India team to help citizens connect better with government services, there is less of an impetus to construct better websites of their own.

If this is so because we currently do not have the capacity to build them ourselves then it is imperative that this changes. We should either be executing government functions on digital infrastructure owned by them or on open and interoperable systems. If anything, the surveyed social media platforms can be used to enhance pre-existing facilities. However, currently the converse is true with these platforms overshadowing the presence of e-governance websites. Officials have started responding to complaints on Twitter, diluting the significance of such complaint mechanisms on their respective department’s portal. Often enough such features are not available on the relevant government website. This sets a dangerous precedent for a citizen management system as the records of such interactions are then in the hands of these companies who may not exist in the future. As a result, they can control the access to such records or worse tamper with them. Posterity and reliability of such data can be ensured only if they are stored within the Government’s reach or if they are open and public with a first copy stored on Government records which ensures transparency as well. Data portability is an important facet to this issue as well as being a right consumers should possess. It provides for support of many devices, transition to alternative technologies and lastly, makes sure that all the data like other public records will be available upon request through the Right to Information procedure. The last is vital to uphold the spirit of transparency envisioned through the RTI process since interactions of government with citizens are then under its ambit and available for disclosure for whomsoever concerned.

Secondly, such practices by the Government are enhancing the monopoly of the companies in the market effectively discouraging competition and eventually, innovation. While a certain elite strata of the population might opt for Twitter or Facebook as their mode of conveying grievance, this may not hold true for the rest of the online India population.

Picking players in a free market is in violation of technology and vendor neutrality, a practice essential in e-governance to provide a level playing field for all and competing technologies. Projecting only a few platforms as de facto mediums of communication with the government inhibits the freedom of choice of citizens to air their grievances through a vendor or technology they are comfortable with. At the same time it makes the Government a mouthpiece for such companies who are gaining free publicity and consolidating their popularity. Government apps such as the SwachBharat one which is an e-governance platform do not offer much more in terms of functionality but either reflect the website or are a less mature version of the same. This leads to the problem of fracturing with many avenues of complaining such as the website, app, Twitter etc. Consequently, the priority of the people dealing with the complaints in terms of platform of response is unsure. Will I be responded to sooner if I tweet a complaint as opposed to putting it up on the app? Having an interoperable system can solve this where the Government can have a dashboard of their various complaints and responses are then made out evenly. Twitter itself could implement this by having complaints from Facebook for example and then the Twitter Seva would be an equal platform as opposed to the current issue where only they are favored.

Recent events have illustrated how detrimental the storage of data by these giants can be in terms of privacy. Data security concerns are also a consequence of such leaks. Not only is this a long overdue call for a better data protection law but at the same time also for the Government to realize that these platforms cannot be trusted. The hiring of Cambridge Analytica to influence voters in the US elections, based on their Facebook profiles and ancillary data, effectively put the governance of the country on sale by exploiting these privacy and security issues. By basing e-governance on their backbone, India is not far from inviting trouble as well. It is unnecessary and dangerous to have a go-between for matters that pertain between an individual and state.

As this article was being written, it was confirmed by the Election Commission that they are partnering with Facebook for the Karnataka Assemby Elections to promote activities such as encourage enrollment of Voter ID and voter participation. Initiatives like these tying the government even closer to these companies are of concern and cementing the latter’s stronghold.

Note: Our survey data and results are attached to this post. All research was collected by Shradha Nigam, a Vth year student at NLSIU, Bangalore.

Survey Data and Results

This report is based on a survey of government advertisements in English language newspapers in relation to their use of social media platforms and dedicated websites (“Survey”). For the purpose of this report, the ambit of the social media platforms has been limited to the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and Instagram. The report was prepared by Shradha Nigam, a student from National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Read the full report here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/government-giving-free-publicity-worth-40-k-to-twitter-and-facebook