Centre for Internet & Society

Jurisdiction: The Taboo Topic at ICANN

by Pranesh Prakash

The "IANA Transition" that is currently underway is a sham since it doesn't address the most important question: that of jurisdiction. This article explores why the issue of jurisdiction is the most important question, and why it remains unaddressed.

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List of Blocked 'Escort Service' Websites

by Pranesh Prakash

Here is the full list of URLs that Indian ISPs were asked to block on Monday, June 13, 2016.

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Smart City Policies and Standards: Overview of Projects, Data Policies, and Standards across Five International Smart Cities

by Kiran A. B., Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh

This blog post aims to review five Smart Cities across the globe, namely Singapore, Dubai, New York City, London and Seoul, the Data Policies and Standards adopted. Also, the research seeks to point the similarities, differences and best practices in the development of smart cities across jurisdictions.

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CIS's Comments on the Draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016

by Pranesh Prakash

The Centre for Internet and Society is alarmed by the Draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016, and has recommended that the proposed law be withdrawn in its entirety. It offered the following detailed comments as its submission.

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The Digital is Political

by Nishant Shah

To speak of technology is to speak of human life and living.

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A Large Byte of Your Life

by Nishant Shah

With the digital, memory becomes equated with storage. We commit to storage to free ourselves from remembering.

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Online Censorship on the Rise: Why I Prefer to Save Things Offline

by Nishant Shah

As governments use their power to erase what they do not approve of from the web, cloud storage will not be enough.

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Facebook: A Platform with Little Less Sharing of Personal Information

by Nishant Shah

As Facebook becomes less personal, what happens to digital friendship?

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Women's Safety? There is an App for That

by Rohini Lakshané

“After locking ourselves in a room for more than 6 days, this is what we came out [sic] with. Join us in helping make WOMEN feel SAFE,” read a gloating press release about a smartphone app for women to notify their near ones that they were in distress. It was one among many such PRs frequently landing in my mailbox after the rape and murder of a young student on board a private bus in Delhi in 2012.

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Criminal Defamation and the Supreme Court’s Loss of Reputation

by Bhairav Acharya

The Supreme Court’s refusal, in Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, to strike down the anachronistic colonial offence of criminal defamation is wrong. Criminalising defamation serves no legitimate public purpose; the vehicle of criminalisation – sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) – is unconstitutional; and the court’s reasoning is woolly at best.

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