Centre for Internet & Society

Engaging with the Covid-19 Crisis

by Pranav M B

In the last six months, COVID-19 has had a far-reaching impact on the world, including on the digital sphere, how people interact with it, and its mediation of social and economic exchanges. Researchers and practitioners at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) have responded to this dynamic landscape from different lenses.

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Use of mobile phones by vulnerable communities: A survey of sex workers and gay men in Karnataka

by Megha Malnad, Parimala, Nagina, and Tasneem Mewa

This report has been authored by Megha Malnad, Parimala, Nagina, and Tasneem Mewa, and edited by Ambika Tandon, Gurshabad Grover and Rajesh Srinivas.

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Social Entitlements for the Transgender Community

by Deepa Krishnappa and Tasneem Mewa

This report has been authored by Deepa Krishnappa and Tasneem Mewa, and edited by Ambika Tandon, Gurshabad Grover and Rajesh Srinivas.

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Event Report: How Safe is Your Harbour? Discussions on Intermediary Liability and User Rights

by Anna Liz Thomas, Shubhika Saluja, Kanav Khanna and Dipto Ghosh

This report provides an overview of the proceedings and outcomes of the panel discussions on intermediary liability, organised at The Energy Research Institute’s (TERI) in Bangalore, on 20 January 2020.

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Investigating TLS blocking in India

by Simone Basso, Gurshabad Grover and Kushagra Singh

A study into Transport Layer Security (TLS)-based blocking by three popular Indian ISPs: ACT Fibernet, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.

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Towards Algorithmic Transparency

by Radhika Radhakrishnan, and Amber Sinha

This policy brief examines the issue of transparency as a key ethical component in the development, deployment, and use of Artificial Intelligence.

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Response to the ‘Call for Comments’ on The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability

by Torsha Sarkar and Suhan S

The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability, proposed in 2018, provided a robust framework of transparency reporting for online companies dealing with user-generated content. In 2020, the framework underwent a period of consultation "to determine whether the Santa Clara Principles should be updated for the ever-changing content moderation landscape." In lieu of this, we presented our responses, which are in-line with our previous research and findings on transparency reporting of online companies, especially in context of the Indian digital space.

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Remove misinformation, but be transparent please!

by Torsha Sarkar

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen an extensive proliferation of misinformation and misleading information on the internet - which in turn has highlighted a heightened need for online intermediaries to promptly and effectively deploy its content removal mechanisms. This blogpost examines how this necessity may affect the best practices of transparency reporting and obligations of accountability that these online intermediaries owe to their users, and formulates recommendations to allow preservation of information regarding Covid-19 related content removal, for future research.

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Donald Trump is attacking the social media giants; here’s what India should do differently

by Anna Liz Thomas and Gurshabad Grover

For a robust and rights-respecting public sphere, India needs to ensure that large social media platforms receive adequate protections, and are made more responsible to its users.

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