The Centre for Internet and Society
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Submission to Global Commission on Stability of Cyberspace on the definition of Cyber Stability
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/arindrajit-basu-and-elonnai-hickok-september-9-2019-submission-to-global-commission-on-stability-of-cyberspace
<b>"The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace released a public consultation process that sought to solicit comments and obtain feedback on the definition of “Stability of Cyberspace”, as developed by the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The definition of cyberspace the GCSC provided was :</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Stability of cyberspace is the condition where individuals and institutions can be reasonably confident in their ability to use cyberspace safely and securely, where the availability and integrity of services in cyberspace is generally assured, where change is managed in relative peace, and where tensions are resolved in a peaceful manner.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre">CIS gave detailed commentary on the definitions [attached] and suggested a new definition of cyber stability documented below:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre">Stability of cyberspace is the objective where individuals, i<strong>nstitutions and communities </strong>are confident in the safety and security of cyberspace; the <strong>accessibility,</strong>availability and integrity of services in cyberspace can be relied upon and where change is managed and tensions ranging from <strong>external interference in sovereign processes to the use of force in cyberspace </strong>are resolved peacefully in <strong>line with the tenets of International Law,specifically the principles of the UN Charter and universally recognised human rights.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre"><strong>Cyber stability can only be fostered if key stakeholders in cyberspace conform to a due diligence obligation of not undertaking and preventing actions that may prevent cyber stability. The end goal of cyber stability must minimize or eliminate immaterial or peripheral incentives while preserving and potentially legitimizing those cyber offensive operations that can further effective deterrence and thereby foster stability, while also minimising any collateral damage to civilian life or property.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/gcsc-response">Click to view the detailed submission here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/arindrajit-basu-and-elonnai-hickok-september-9-2019-submission-to-global-commission-on-stability-of-cyberspace'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/arindrajit-basu-and-elonnai-hickok-september-9-2019-submission-to-global-commission-on-stability-of-cyberspace</a>
</p>
No publisherArindrajit Basu and Elonnai HickokInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-09-11T14:52:25ZBlog EntryDoing Standpoint Theory
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-gender-it-september-1-2019-doing-standpoint-theory
<b>Feminist research methodology has evolved from different epistemologies, with several different schools of thought. Some of the more popular ones are feminist standpoint theory, feminist empiricism, and feminist relativism.</b>
<p>The article by Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory">GenderIT.org</a> on September 1, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Standpoint theory holds the experiences of the marginalised as the source of ‘truth’ about structures of oppression, which is silenced by traditional objectivist research methods as they produce knowledge from the standpoint of voices in positions of power<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote2sym">2</a>. Feminist empiricism does not eschew traditional modes of knowledge production, but emphasises diversity of research participants for feminist (and therefore also rigorous) knowledge production<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote3sym">3</a>. Relativists have critiqued standpoint theory for its tendency to essentialise the experience of marginalised groups, and subsume them into one homogenous voice to achieve the goal of ‘emancipatory’ research<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote4sym">4</a>. Relativists instead focus on multiple standpoints, which could be Dalit women, lesbian women, or women with disabilities<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote5sym">5</a>. We will be discussing the practical applicability of these epistemologies to research practices in the field of technology and gender.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">Standpoint theory holds the experiences of the marginalised as the source of ‘truth’ about structures of oppression, which is silenced by traditional objectivist research methods as they produce knowledge from the standpoint of voices in positions of power.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the Feminist Internet Research Network, the Centre for Internet and Society is undertaking research on the digital mediation of domestic and care work in India. The project aims to assess shifts in the sector, including conditions of work, brought on by the entry of digital platforms. Our starting point for designing a methodology for the research was standpoint theory, which we thought to be the best fit as the goal of the project was to disrupt dominant narratives of women’s labour in relation to platformisation. In the context of dalit feminis, Rege warns that standpoint research risks producing a narrow frame of identity politics, although it is critical to pay attention to lived experience and the “naming of difference” between dalit women and savarna women<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote6sym">6</a>. She asserts that neither ‘women’ nor ‘dalit women’ is a homogenous category. While feminist researchers from outside these categories cannot claim to “speak for” those within, they can “reinvent” themselves as dalit feminists and ally themselves with their politics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In order to address this risk of appropriating the voices of domestic workers (“speaking for”), we chose to directly work with a domestic workers’ union in Bengaluru called Stree Jagruti Smiti. Bengaluru is one of the two cities we are conducting research in (the other being Delhi, with very few registered unions). This is meant to radically destabilise power hierarchies and material relations within the research process, as benefits of participatory research tend to accumulate with the researchers rather than participants<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote7sym">7</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Along with amplifying the voices of workers, a central objective of our project is to question the techno-solutionism that has accompanied the entry of digital platforms into the domestic work sector, which is unorganised and unregulated. To do so, we included companies and state labour departments as participants whose standpoint is to be interrogated. By juxtaposing the standpoints of stakeholders that have differential access to power and resources, the researcher is able to surface various conflicts and intersections in dominant and alternative narratives. This form of research also brings with it unique challenges, as researchers could find themselves mediating between the different stakeholders, while constantly choosing to privilege the standpoint of the least powerful - in this case the workers. Self-reflexivity then becomes necessary to ensure that the project does not slip into an absolutely relativist position, rather using the narratives of workers to challenge those of governments and private actors. This can also be done by ensuring that workers have agency to shape the agenda of researchers, thereby producing research which is instrumental in supporting grassroots campaigns and movements.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">Self-reflexivity then becomes necessary to ensure that the project does not slip into an absolutely relativist position, rather using the narratives of workers to challenge those of governments and private actors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist participatory research itself, despite its many promises, is not a linear pathway to empowerment for participants<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote8sym">8</a>. At the very outset of the project, we were constantly asked the question by domestic workers and unions – why should we participate in this project? Researchers, in their experience, acquire information from the community throughout the process of data collection by positioning themselves as allies. However, as all such engagements are bound to limited timelines and budgets, researchers are then often absent at critical junctures where the community may need external support. We were also told that all too often, the output of the research itself does not make its way back to the participants, making it a one-way process of knowledge extraction. Being mindful of these experiences, we have integrated a feedback loop into our research design, which will allow us to design outputs that are accessible and useful to collectives of domestic workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Not only domestic workers and their organisations, many corporations operating these online portals and platforms often questioned the benefits of participating in the project. However, the manner of articulation differed. While attempting to reject the hierarchical nature of the researcher/participant relationship, we increasingly became aware that the underlying power equation was not a monolith. Rather, it varied across stakeholder groups and was explicitly contingent on the socially constructed positionalities already existing outside of the space of the interview. Companies, governments and workers all exemplified varying degrees of engagement with, knowledge of, and contributions to research. Interviews with workers and unions, and even some bootstrapped (i.e. without much external funding) , socially-minded companies, were often cathartic with an expectation of some benefits in return for opening themselves up to researchers. This was quite different for governments and larger companies, as conversations typically adhered to the patriarchal and classed notions of professionalism in sanitised, formal spaces<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote9sym">9</a> and the strict dichotomy between public and personal spaces. Their contribution seemingly required lesser affective engagement from the interviewee, thereby resulting in lesser investment in the outcome of the research itself.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The cathartic nature of interviews also speak to the impossibility of the distanced, Platonic, school of research. We were often asked politically charged questions, our advice solicited and information sought. Workers and representatives from platform companies alike would question our motivations with the research and challenge us by inquiring about the benefits accruing to us. Again, both set of stakeholders would often ask differently about how other platforms were; workers already registered on a platform would wonder if another platform would be ‘better’ and representatives of platform companies would be curious about competition. This is perhaps a consequence of attempting to design a study that is of use and of interest to the workers we have been reaching out to.<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote10sym">10</a> At times, we found ourselves at a place in the conversation where we were compelled to respond to political positions for the conversation to continue. There were interviews where notions of caste hierarchies (within oppressed classes) as a justification/complaint for engaging/having to engage in certain tasks would surface. Despite being beholden to a feminist consciousness that disregards the idea of the interviewer as neutral, we often found ourselves only hesitantly forthcoming. At times, it was to keep the interview broadly focused around the research subject, at others it was due to our own ignorance about the research artefact (in this instance, platforms mediating domestic work services). This underscores the challenges of seeing the interview as a value ridden space, where the contradictions between the interview as a data collection method and as a consciousness raising emerged - how could we share information about the artefact we were in the process of collecting data about?</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">We were often asked politically charged questions, our advice solicited and information sought.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The fostering of ‘rapport’<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote11sym">11</a> has made its may into method, almost unknowingly. Often, respondents across stakeholder groups started from an initial place of hesitation, sometimes even suspicion. Several structural issues could be at work here - our inability in being able to accurately describe research itself, the class differences and at times, ideological ones as well. While with most participants, rapport was eventually established, its establishment was a laboured process. Especially given that we were using one-off, in-depth interviews as our method, securing an interview was contingent on the establishment of rapport. This isn’t to suggest that feminist research mandatorily requires the ‘doing of rapport’<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote12sym">12</a>, but that when it does, it’s a fortunate outcome and that feminist researchers engage with it more critically.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Building rapport creates an impression of having minimised the exploitation of the participant, however the underlying politics and pressures of building rapport need to be interrogated. Rapport, like research itself, is at times a performance; rapport is often not naturally occuring. Rather, rapport may also be built to conceal the very structural factors preventing it. For instance, during instances of ideological differences during the interview, we were at times complicit through our silence. This may have been to further a certain notion of ‘objectivity’ itself whereby the building and maintenance of rapport is essential to surfacing a participant’s real views. This then raises the questions: What are the ethical questions that the suppression of certain viewpoints and reactions pose? How does the building, maintenance and continuance of rapport inform the research findings? Rapport, then, comes in all shapes and sizes and its manifold forms implicate the research process differently. Another critical question to be addressed is - why does some rapport take less work than others? With platform companies, building rapport came by easier than it did with workers both on and off platforms. If understood as removing degrees of distance between the researcher and participants, several factors could play into the effort required to build rapport. For instance, language was a critical determinant of the ease of relationship-building. Being more fluent in English than in colloquial Hindi enabled clearer articulation of the research. Further, familiarity with the research process was, as expected, mediated along class lines. This influenced the manner in which we articulated research outcomes and objectives to workers with complete unfamiliarity with the meaning of research. Among workers, this unfamiliarity often resulted in distrust, which required the underlying politics of the research to be more critically articulated.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">By and large, the feminist engagement with research methods has been quite successful in its resistance and transformation of traditional forms. Since Oakley’s conception of the interview as a deeply subjective space<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote13sym">13</a> and Harding’s dialectical conception of masculinist science through its history<a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory#sdfootnote14sym">14</a>, the application of feminist critical theory has increasingly subverted assumptions around the averseness of research to political motivations. At the same time, it has made knowledge-production occur in a more equitable space. It is in this context that standpoint theory has had wide purchase, but challenges persist in its application. As the foregoing discussion outlines, we have been able to achieve some of the goals of feminist standpoint research while missing out on others. We also found the ‘multiple standpoints’ approach of relativists to be useful in a project involving multiple stakeholders - thereby also avoiding the risk of essentialisation of the identities of domestic workers. However, unlike the tendency of relativists to focus on each perspective as ‘equally valid truth’, we are choosing to focus on the conflicts and intersections between emerging discourses. Through this hybrid theoretical framework, we are seeking to make knowledge production more equitable. At the same time, the discussion around rapport shows that this may nevertheless happen in a limited fashion. Feminist research may never be fully non-extractive. The reflexivity exercised and choices made during the course of the research are key.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Unlike the tendency of relativists to focus on each perspective as ‘equally valid truth’, we are choosing to focus on the conflicts and intersections between emerging discourses.</p>
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<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote1sym"></a> The names of the authors are in alphabetical order.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p><a name="sdfootnote2sym"></a> Harding, S. (2003) The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies, Routledge.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p><a name="sdfootnote3sym"></a> M. Wickramasinghe, Feminist Research Methodology: Making meaning out of meaning-making, Zubaan, 2014</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote4sym"></a> Pease, D. (2000) Researching profeminist men's narratives: participatory methodologies in a postmodern frame. In B. Fawcett, D. Featherstone, J. Fook ll)'ld A. Rossiter (eds) Restarching and Practising in Social Work: Postmodern Feminist Perspectives (London: Routledge).</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p><a name="sdfootnote5sym"></a> Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1983) Breaking Out: Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Research (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote6sym"></a> Rege, S. 1998. ” Dalit Women Talk Differently: A critique of ‘Difference’ and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No.44, pp 39-48.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote7sym"></a> Heeks, R. and Shekhar, S. (2018) An Applied Data Justice Framework: Analysing Datafication and Marginalised Communities in Cities of the Global South. Working Paper Series, Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote8sym"></a> Stone, E. and Priestley, M. (1996) Parasites, pawn and partners: disability research and the role of nondisabled researchers. British Journal of Sociology, 47(4), 699-716.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote9sym"></a> Evans, L. (2010). Professionalism, professionality and the development of education professionals. Br. J. Educ. Stud. 56, 20–38. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8527.2007.00392.x</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p><a name="sdfootnote10sym"></a> Webb C. Feminist methodology in nursing research. J Adv Nurs. 1984 May;9(3):249-56.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote11sym"></a> Berger, R. (2015). Now I see it, now I don’t: researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qual. Res. 15, 219–234. doi:10.1177/1468794112468475; Pitts, M. J., and Miller-Day, M. (2007). Upward turning points and positive rapport development across time in researcher-participant relationships. Qual. Res. 7, 177–201. doi:10.1177/1468794107071409</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote12sym"></a> Dunscombe, J., and Jessop, J. (2002). “Doing rapport, and the ethics of ’faking friendship’,” in <i>Ethics in Qualitative Research</i>, eds T. Miller, M. Birch, M. Mauthner, and J. Jessop (London: SAGE), 108–121.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p><a name="sdfootnote13sym"></a> Oakley, A. (1981). “Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms?” in Doing Feminist Research, ed. H. Roberts (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul), 30–61.</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a name="sdfootnote14sym"></a> Harding, S. (1986). The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.</p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-gender-it-september-1-2019-doing-standpoint-theory'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-gender-it-september-1-2019-doing-standpoint-theory</a>
</p>
No publisherAmbika Tandon and Aayush RathiGenderInternet Governance2019-09-19T14:22:48ZBlog EntryAugust 2019 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2019-newsletter
<b>Centre for Internet & Society newsletter for the month of August 2019.</b>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights for August 2019</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Oxford Internet Institute and CIS are creating a State of the Internet’s Languages report, as baseline research with both numbers and stories, to demonstrate how far we are from making the internet multilingual. The call is available in <a href="https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/callforcontributions/#CIS-AR" target="_blank">Arabic</a>, <a href="https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/callforcontributions/#CIS-PT" target="_blank">Brazilian Portuguese</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/dtil-2019-call#en">English</a>, <a href="https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/callforcontributions/#CIS-IZ" target="_blank">IsiZulu</a>, <a href="https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/callforcontributions/#CIS-ES" target="_blank">Spanish</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/dtil-2019-call#ta">Tamil</a>. <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/dtil-2019-call">CIS invites friends and communities to translate the call into other languages</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS's Access to Knowledge (A2K) team <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/call-for-joining-the-free-knowledge-movement-wikipedia-wikimedia">is conducting a free knowledge movement</a> and as part of this initiative it is inviting contributions from the Wikipedia community. Photos, media, content or archives donated by community members would be used worldwide to disseminate information. The content you are donating must be under Creative Commons Share-like content. You must have the copyright of the content under <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license">CC licenses</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Over the last few years, several <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/digtial-identities-research-plan">digital identity schemes have been initiated in different countries across the world</a>. There has been significant momentum on digital ID, especially after the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, which calls for legal identity for all by 2030. Authors, Amber Sinha and Pooja Saxena, explore about the uses and design of digital identity systems and ask two core questions a) What are appropriate uses of ID?, and b) How should we think about the technological design of ID?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Together with the <a class="external-link" href="https://itsrio.org/pt/home/">Institute of Technology & Society</a> (ITS), Brazil, and the <a class="external-link" href="https://www.cipit.org/">Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law</a>(CIPIT), Kenya, CIS participated at a side event in <a class="external-link" href="https://www.rightscon.org/">RightsCon 2019</a> held in Tunisia, titled Holding ID Issuers Accountable, What Works?, organised by the <a class="external-link" href="https://www.omidyar.com/">Omidyar Network</a>. A report of the event is published <a class="external-link" href="https://digitalid.design/rightscon-2019-report.html">here</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">As governments across the globe implement new, foundational, digital identification systems (“Digital ID”), or modernize existing ID programs, there is dire need for greater research and discussion about appropriate uses of Digital ID systems. At RightsCon 2019 in Tunis, we presented <a class="external-link" href="https://bit.ly/CISDigitalIDAppropriateUse">working drafts</a> on appropriate use of Digital ID by the partner organisations of this <a class="external-link" href="https://www.omidyar.com/blog/appropriate-use-digital-identity-why-we-invested-three-region-research%C2%A0alliance">three-region research alliance</a> - ITS from Brazil, CIPIT from Kenya, and CIS from India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-to-the-id4d-practitioners2019-guide">gave its comments to the ID4D Practitioners’ Guide: Draft For Consultation</a> released by ID4D in June, 2019. The submission is divided into three main parts. The first part (General Comments) contains the high-level comments on the Practitioners’ Guide, while the second part (Specific Comments) addresses individual sections in the Guide. The third and final part (Additional Comments) does not relate to particulars in the Practitioners' Guide but other documents that it relies upon.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had released the National Digital Health Blueprint on 15 July 2019 for comments. <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/samyukta-prabhu-ambika-tandon-torsha-sarkar-and-aayush-rathi-august-4-2019-comments-on-national-digital-health-blueprint">CIS submitted its comments</a>. CIS notes that the nature of data which would be subject to processing in the proposed digital framework pre-supposes a robust data protection regime in India, one which is currently absent. Accordingly, it urges the ministry to cease the implementation of the framework until the Personal Data Protection Bill is passed by the Parliament. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aayush Rathi , Vedika Pareek , Divij Joshi and Pranav Bidare <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/future-of-work-in-the-asean">co-authored a research paper 'Future of Work in the ASEAN'</a>. The authors reveal that the future of work will be mediated through region and country specific factors such as socioeconomic,geopolitical and demographic change. The report was edited by Elonnai Hickok and Ambika Tandon with research assistance by Sankalp Srivastava and Anjanaa Aravindan. The research is supported by Tides Foundation.</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>CIS and the News</h3>
<p>The following articles were authored by CIS secretariat during the month:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/loksatta-august-3-2019-subodh-kulkarni-and-madhav-gadgil-the-knowledge-base-is-liberated">The Knowledge Base is Liberated</a> (Subodh Kulkarni and Madhav Gadgil; Loksatta; August 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/nextrends-india-arindrajit-basu-august-5-2019-private-sector-and-the-cultivation-of-cyber-norms-in-india">Private Sector and the cultivation of cyber norms in India</a> (Arindrajit Basu; Nextrends India; August 5, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cyber-brics-august-12-2019-torsha-sarkar-rethinking-the-intermediary-liability-regime-in-india">Rethinking the intermediary liability regime in India </a>(Torsha Sarkar; CyberBRICS; August 16, 2019).</li>
<li>
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-august-18-2019-digital-native-how-free-is-internet">Digital Native: How free is the internet?</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; August 18, 2019).</div>
</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/prime-time-august-26-2019-sunil-abraham-linking-aadhaar-with-social-media-or-ending-encryption-is-counterproductive">Linking Aadhaar with social media or ending encryption is counterproductive</a> (Sunil Abraham; Prime Time; August 26, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-27-2019-a-judicial-overreach-into-matters-of-regulation">A judicial overreach into matters of regulation</a> (Gurshabad Grover; The Hindu; August 28, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-29-2019-aayush-rathi-and-akriti-bopanna-kashmirs-information-vacuum">Kashmir’s information vacuum</a> (Aayush Rathi and Akriti Bopanna; The Hindu; August 29, 2019).</li></ul>
<h3>CIS in the News</h3>
<p>CIS secretariat was consulted for the following articles published during the month in various publications:</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-print-august-6-2019-will-modi-govt-move-on-kashmir-article-370-stand-the-scrutiny-of-supreme-court">Will Modi govt move on Kashmir’s Article 370 stand the scrutiny of Supreme Court?</a> (The Print; August 6, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/washington-post-august-6-2019-niha-masih-internet-mobile-blackout-shuts-down-communication-with-kashmir">‘I’m just helpless’: Concern about Kashmir mounts as communication blackout continues</a> (Niha Masih; Washington Post; August 6, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-news-minute-haripriya-suresh-august-8-2019-why-madras-hc-case-on-whatsapp-traceability-could-have-wider-ramifications">Why the Madras HC case on WhatsApp traceability could have wider ramifications</a> (Haripriya Suresh; The News Minute; August 8, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/medianama-trisha-jalan-august-8-2019-ministry-of-health-public-consultation-on-national-digital-health-blueprint">Ministry of Health's public consultation on National Digital Health Blueprint: Legal issues around telemedicine, consent, and 'egosystems' in healthcare</a> (Trisha Jalan; Medianama; August 8, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-nina-c-george-august-13-2019-abuse-linked-to-net-fixation">Abuse linked to Net fixation</a> (Nina C. George; Deccan Herald; August 13, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/new-york-times-august-14-2019-vindu-goel-karan-deep-singh-and-sameer-yasir-india-shut-down-kashmir-internet-access-now-we-cannot-do-anything">India Shut Down Kashmir’s Internet Access. Now, ‘We Cannot Do Anything.’</a> (Vindu Goel, Karan Deep Singh and Sameer; New York Times; August 14, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/news/quartz-india-august-16-2019-india-s-top-science-institution-is-trying-hard-to-fix-its-manel-problem">India’s top science institution is trying hard to fix its “manel” problem</a> (Quartz India; August 16, 2019). This piece was originally published on Connect under the headline, “We Learned (The Hard Way) Not to Have Manels.”</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/raffaele-angius-august-19-2019-india-kashmir-internet">Perché l'India ha tagliato internet al Kashmir</a> (Raffaele Angius; WIRED.IT; August 19, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/et-prime-sandhya-sharma-august-19-2019-us-pressure-threatens-to-weaken-data-localisation-mandate-in-indias-landmark-data-protection-bill">US pressure threatens to weaken data - localisation mandate in India's landmark data-protection bill</a> (Sandhya Sharma; ET Prime; August 19, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/money-control-swathi-moorthy-august-20-2019-linking-aadhaar-to-facebook-whatsapp-wont-curb-fake-news-impinge-on-privacy-experts">Linking Aadhaar to Facebook, WhatsApp won't curb fake news, but may undermine its legislation: Experts</a> (Swathy Moorthy; Moneycontrol; August 20, 2019).</span></li>
<li><a style="text-align: justify;" class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-print-august-21-2019-taran-deol-and-revathi-krishnan-linking-aadhaar-to-facebook-twitter">Linking Aadhaar to Facebook, Twitter: Possible witch-hunt or key to curb crime & fake news?</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> (Taran Deol and Revathi Krishanan; The Print; August 21, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-rajmohan-sudhakar-august-25-2019-ai-is-biased-you-see-if-you-google-hands">AI is biased, you’ll see if you Google ‘hands’</a> (Rajmohan Sudhakar; Deccan Herald; August 25, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="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 plans tighter rules for social media brands like Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat</a> (Sunny Sen; CNBC TV 18; August 28, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-28-2019-amrita-madhukalya-what-centre-will-tell-sc-on-aadhaar-and-social-media-account-linkage">What Centre will tell Supreme Court on Aadhaar and social media account linkage</a> (Amrita Madhukalya; Hindustan Times; August 28, 2019).</span></li></ul>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia</h3>
<p>Under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation we are doing a project <span style="text-align: justify;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/call-for-joining-the-free-knowledge-movement-wikipedia-wikimedia">Call for joining the Free Knowledge movement #Wikipedia #Wikimedia</a> (Bhuvana Meenakshi; August 19, 2019).</li></ul>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p>
<h3>Freedom of Speech & Expression</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Participation in Events</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/packets-net-neutrality-and-gaming-public-policy-outcomes">Packets, net neutrality and gaming public policy outcomes</a> (Organized by Has Geek; Bangalore; August 15, 2019). Gurshabad Grover attended Prof. Vishal Misra's lecture on net neutrality.</li></ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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:</p>
<p><strong>Submission</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/samyukta-prabhu-ambika-tandon-torsha-sarkar-and-aayush-rathi-august-4-2019-comments-on-national-digital-health-blueprint">Comments on the National Digital Health Blueprint</a> (Samyukta Prabhu, Ambika Tandon, Torsha Sarkar and Aayush Rathi; August 7, 2019). </li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/digital-id-forum-2019">Digital ID Forum 2019</a> (Organized by UNDP; Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; July 3, 2019). Sunil Abraham was one of the panelists at this event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bis-litd-17-meeting">BIS LITD 17 meeting</a> (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).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-data-for-good-in-bangalore">Facebook Data for Good in Bangalore</a> (Organized by Facebook; Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; July 25, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/roundtable-with-the-whatsapp-leadership">Roundtable with the WhatsApp leadership</a> (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.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-data-for-good-delhi">Facebook Data for Good in New Delhi</a> (Organized by Facebook; University of Chicago Center, New Delhi; July 29, 2019).</li></ul>
<h3>IT / Information Technology</h3>
<p>A research on the usage of systems (computers and telecommunications) for storing, retrieving and sending information as well as the IT Act:</p>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/future-of-work-in-the-asean">Future of Work in the ASEAN</a> (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).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cyber-policy-2.0">Cyber Policy 2.0</a> (Organized by National Law University; Bangalore; August 17, 2019). Arindrajit Basu was a speaker.</li></ul>
<h3>Artificial Intelligence</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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:</p>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/emergence-of-chinese-technology-rising-stakes-for-innovation-competition-and-governance">Emergence of Chinese Technology:Rising stakes for innovation, competition and governance</a> (Organized by Omidyar Network in partnership with the Esya Centre; New Delhi; August 12, 2019). Arindrajit Basu attended the event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/impact-of-industrial-revolution-4-0-it-and-automotive-sector-in-india-by-the-dialogue-and-fes">Impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 - IT and Automotive Sector in India</a> (Organized by the Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; Bangalore; August 21, 2019). Aayush Rathi attended the event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/policies-for-the-platform-economy">Policies for the Platform Economy</a> (Organized by IT for Change; India Habitat Centre; New Delhi; August 30, 2019). Amber Sinha and Anubha Sinha were panelists. </li></ul>
<h3>Digital Identity</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/digtial-identities-research-plan">Design and Uses of Digital Identities - Research Plan</a> (Amber Sinha and Pooja Saxena; August 8, 2019). </li></ul>
<p><strong>Submissions</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-appropriate-use-of-digital-identity">The Appropriate Use of Digital Identity</a> (Amber Sinha; August 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-to-the-id4d-practitioners2019-guide">Comments to the ID4D Practitioners’ Guide</a> (Amber Sinha; August 8, 2019).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/holding-id-issuers-accountable-what-works">Holding ID Issuers Accountable, What Works?</a> (Organized by Omidyar Network; RightsCon 2019; August 8, 2019).</li></ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers@Work</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/workshop-on-archival-standards-and-digitisation-workflow">Workshop on Archival Standards and Digitisation Workflow</a> (Organized by British Library; NCBS; Bangalore; August 19 - 20, 2019). P.P. Sneha attended the event.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/hookingup-bbd0f06a8851">#HookingUp</a> (Akhil Kang, Christina Thomas Dhanraj, Dhrubo Jyoti, and Gowthaman Ranganathan; August 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/dtil-2019-call">Call for Contributions and Reflections: Your experiences in Decolonizing the Internet’s Languages!</a> (P.P. Sneha; August 7, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/simiran-lalvani-worker-kinship-food-delivery-mumbai">Simiran Lalvani - Workers’ fictive kinship relations in Mumbai app-based food delivery</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; August 16, 2019).</li></ul>
<hr />
<h3><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Follow CIS on:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org</li>
<li>E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org</li>
<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li></ul>
<p><strong>Support CIS:</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Collaborate with CIS:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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 sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (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 tanveer@cis-india.org.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>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</em>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2019-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2019-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet GovernanceAccess to Knowledge2019-12-06T04:54:20ZPageFuture of Work in the ASEAN
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/future-of-work-in-the-asean
<b>A literature review of the future of work in automotive manufacturing and IT services in the ASEAN region, authored by Aayush Rathi, Vedika Pareek, Divij Joshi, and Pranav M B.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Read the research paper: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/pdf-asean-literature-review" class="internal-link" title="PDF ASEAN Literature Review">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<p>Authored by Aayush Rathi, Vedika Pareek, Divij Joshi, and Pranav Bidare</p>
<p>Research assistance by Sankalp Srivastava and Anjanaa Aravindan</p>
<p>Edited by Elonnai Hickok and Ambika Tandon</p>
<p>Supported by Tides Foundation</p>
<hr />
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The world of work, and its future, have attracted a lot of attention in recent times. The discussion has been provoked by the confluence of recent technological breakthroughs that portend to have wide-ranging implications on work and livelihoods. In what has been termed the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” or “Industry 4.0” , the discussion has engaged numerous stakeholders. However, no shared understanding of what this future of work will look like has materialised. Historical scholarship around technological change and its impact on the labour market was focussed in the context of high-income countries. Contemporaneously, however, research is being produced that outlines the possible futures of work in low and middle-income contexts. It is exigent to generate scholarship dedicated to low and middle-income contexts given that in addition to technological drivers, the future of work will be mediated through region and country specific factors such as socioeconomic,geopolitical and demographic change.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/future-of-work-in-the-asean'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/future-of-work-in-the-asean</a>
</p>
No publisheraayushFuture of WorkInternet GovernanceAutomotive ManufacturingInformation Technology2020-03-05T19:22:50ZBlog EntryKashmir’s information vacuum
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-29-2019-aayush-rathi-and-akriti-bopanna-kashmirs-information-vacuum
<b>Legislative backing is being appropriated to normalise communication shutdowns.</b>
<p class="drop-caps" style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Aayush Rathi and Akriti Bopanna was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/kashmirs-information-vacuum/article29282096.ece">published in the Hindu</a> on August 29, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p class="drop-caps" style="text-align: justify; ">On August 4, around midnight, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/tag/134-81/jammu-and-kashmir/?utm=bodytag" target="_blank">Jammu and Kashmir </a>was thrust into a near total communication shutdown. In the continuing aftermath of the dilution of Article 370, cable television, cellular services, landline and Internet and even the postal services have been rendered inoperational. Even hospitals and fire stations have not been spared. While law enforcement personnel have been provided satellite phones, locals are having to queue up outside designated government offices and register the numbers they want to call. The blackout is all encompassing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir is accustomed to the flicking on of the “Internet killswitch”, but this indiscriminate embargo is unprecedented. The blocking of multi-point/two-way communication is quite frequent in Kashmir, with close to 55 instances of partial or complete Internet shutdowns being recorded just this year. Of the 347 cases of shutdown that have been imposed in India since 2012, 51% have been in Kashmir. The blocking of one-way communication media, such as cable television, however, is new. Even the measures adopted during the Kargil war in 1999 stopped short of blocking telephone lines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Appearing for the incumbent government on a petition challenging the communications shutdown in Kashmir, the Attorney General of India, K.K. Venugopal, made the necessary-for-law-and-order argument.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, recent research by Jan Rydzak looking exclusively at network shutdowns in India has shown no evidence backing this claim. On the contrary, network shutdowns have been shown to compel actors wanting to engage in collective action to substitute non-violent mobilisation for more violent means as the latter requires less coordination.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">In dubious company</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Network shutdowns have a limited and inconsistent effect on even structured, non-violent protests. Cross-country comparative research indicates that the shutdown of communication for achieving objectives of social control is usually the riposte of authoritarian regimes. The shroud of secrecy it creates allows for further controversial measures to be effected away from public scrutiny. Authoritarian regimes masquerading as liberal democracies are following suit. In 2016, the Turkish government had ordered the shutdown of over 100 media companies in the aftermath of a failed military coup. Earlier this year, Joseph Kabila’s government in the Democratic Republic of Congo had shut down Internet and SMS services for three weeks under the pretext of preventing the circulation of fake election results.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr. Venugopal further reassured the Supreme Court that the residents of Kashmir would experience the least amount of inconvenience. This line assumes that the primary use of telecommunication networks is for supposedly banal interpersonal interaction. What is forgotten is that these networks function both as an “infrastructure” and as medium of communication. Impacting either function has dire and simultaneous consequences on its use as the other. As an infrastructure, they are akin to a public utility and are foundational to the operation of critical systems such as water supply and finance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the Kashmir Valley, over half the business transactions are said to happen online. The payment of wages for the government-run employment guarantee scheme for unskilled manual labour is almost entirely made electronically — 99.56% in Jammu and Kashmir. The reliance on the Internet for bank-related transactions has meant that automated teller machines and banks are inoperative. What is telling is that the increasing recourse to network shutdowns as a law and order tool in India is also happening simultaneously with the government’s digitisation drive. Information flows are being simultaneously facilitated and throttled.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Ambiguous backing</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Moreover, communication shutdowns have ambiguous legal backing. One approach imposes them as an order passed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. A colonial relic, Section 144 is frequently used for the imposition of curfew in ‘sensitive’ areas as a preventive measure against public demonstrations. This approach lacks procedural accountability and transparency. Orders are not mandated to be publicly notified; they do not identify the duration of the lockdown or envision an appeal mechanism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Perhaps realising these challenges, the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017, notified under the Telegraph Act, do incorporate a review mechanism. However, reviewing officials do not have the authority to revoke a shutdown order even if it is deemed illegal. The grounds for effectuating any shutdown also have not been elaborated other than for ‘public emergency’ or ‘public safety’ — both these terms are undefined. Legislative backing, then, is being appropriated to normalise, not curb, communication shutdowns. Tellingly, the owner of an Internet service provider in Kashmir pointed out that with Internet shutdowns becoming so common, often the shape that an order takes is of a call from a government official, while the procedural documentation follows much later.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Treated as collateral damage in imposing communication blackouts are the fundamental freedoms of speech and expression, trade, and also of association. The imposition of Section 144 along with the virtual curfew is designed to restrict the freedom to assemble peacefully. Such preemptive measures assume that any assembly will be violent along with negating the potential utility of technological means in maintaining social order (such as responsible digital journalism checking the spread of rumours).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Most critically, this enables a complete information vacuum, the only salve from which is information supplied by the suppressor. Of the days leading up to August 5 and the days since, sparse information is publicly available. Local newspaper outlets in Kashmir are inoperational. This lack of information necessarily precludes effective democratic participation. Beneath the national security sentiments, a key motivation for network shutdown presents itself: that of political <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/tag/1351-1349/censorship/?utm=bodytag" target="_blank">censorship </a>through the criminalisation of dissent.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-29-2019-aayush-rathi-and-akriti-bopanna-kashmirs-information-vacuum'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-29-2019-aayush-rathi-and-akriti-bopanna-kashmirs-information-vacuum</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi and Akriti BopannaFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet Governance2019-09-02T04:34:29ZBlog EntryWhat Centre will tell Supreme Court on Aadhaar and social media account linkage
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-28-2019-amrita-madhukalya-what-centre-will-tell-sc-on-aadhaar-and-social-media-account-linkage
<b>The top court had held in the Aadhaar case that the government can make the linking of the 12-digit-number mandatory only in the case of availing subsidies and welfare benefits. Consequently, Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act was struck down.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Amrita Madhukalya was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/what-centre-will-tell-supreme-court-on-aadhaar-and-social-media-account-linkage/story-KSnf1PHpsTboHQh6sk7VxK.html">Hindustan Times</a> on August 28, 2019. Gurshabad Grover was quoted.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre will refer to the Aadhaar Act and the Supreme Court’s 2017 privacy judgement when it is directed by the top court to put forward its view on whether the unique identification number should be made mandatory in opening and managing accounts on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“While we are yet to receive a notice from the SC asking for our reply, the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016, and the apex court’s 2017 judgement upholding the Right to Privacy will guide us in drafting a response,” a senior official of the ministry of electronics and information technology, who did not wish to be named, said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The top court had held in the Aadhaar case that the government can make the linking of the 12-digit-number mandatory only in the case of availing subsidies and welfare benefits. Consequently, Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act was struck down.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a division bench of Madras High Court continues to hear two writ petitions on whether social media profiles should be linked to Aadhaar so that users in cases where pornographic material, fake news and communal content is posted on these sites can be traced, Facebook had simultaneously filed a plea to transfer all similar cases in the high courts of Madras, Bombay as well as Madhya Pradesh. The top court will hear the matter on September 13.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">During its hearings, Madras High Court made it clear that it will not rule on Aadhaar-linking and the case will concentrate on traceability now. As of now, only one of the transfer petitions, the one in Jabalpur, deals with Aadhaar linking.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Meanwhile, the top court has already asked social media companies for their stand on the matter. Senior lawyers Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal, who have been representing Facebook and WhatsApp respectively in Madras High Court case, have already said that as both the companies are headquartered outside of India, with operations in dozens of countries, the high court’s judgement will have ramifications globally.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Both Twitter and Google declined to comment on the matter, as the matter is sub-judice, while Facebook was not available.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, in March this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that privacy, encryption and secure data storage were some of these principles while unveiling the company’s “vision and principles” in building a “privacy-focused” social platform.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wherein people can have “clear control over who can communicate with them and confidence that no one else can access what they share”, such communication could be secure with end-to-end encryption, and Facebook will not store sensitive data in countries with “weak records on human rights”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Gurshabad Grover of the Centre for Internet Security says he welcomes the Centre’s stand but adds that the petition should not have been allowed by the Madras High Court in the first place.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The case is now deliberating on policy, which is the responsibility of the government. This goes against the basis of separation of power,” he says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre is dealing with issues surrounding traceability through the Intermediaries Guidelines, which is due in the next few weeks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The solution, Grover says, lies in diplomatic negotiations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Instruments like the US’ Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act can come in handy if India can fight for better executive agreements there, provided we have data protection laws in line with human rights standards,” he said.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-28-2019-amrita-madhukalya-what-centre-will-tell-sc-on-aadhaar-and-social-media-account-linkage'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-28-2019-amrita-madhukalya-what-centre-will-tell-sc-on-aadhaar-and-social-media-account-linkage</a>
</p>
No publisherAmrita MadhukalyaInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-09-02T04:28:45ZNews ItemPackets, net neutrality and gaming public policy outcomes
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/packets-net-neutrality-and-gaming-public-policy-outcomes
<b>Gurshabad Grover attended Prof. Vishal Misra's lecture on net neutrality at Has Geek in Bangalore on August 15, 2019.</b>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6s2nM9HBiog" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/packets-net-neutrality-and-gaming-public-policy-outcomes'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/packets-net-neutrality-and-gaming-public-policy-outcomes</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminNet NeutralityInternet Governance2019-08-28T15:15:37ZNews ItemGovernment plans tighter rules for social media brands like Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat
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
<b>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.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post by Sunny Sen was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/government-plans-tighter-rules-for-social-media-brands-like-facebook-tiktok-sharechat-4254071.htm">CNBC TV 18</a> on August 28, 2019. Sunil Abraham was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“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.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government is also considering to stop intermediaries from having exclusive user-generated content on the platform.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Discussions are on, but there is no decision on that yet,” said another source.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 <em>Moneycontrol</em>, asking for clarity on laws governing intermediaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='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'>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</a>
</p>
No publisherSunny SenInternet Governance2019-08-28T15:11:38ZNews ItemLinking Aadhaar with social media or ending encryption is counterproductive
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/prime-time-august-26-2019-sunil-abraham-linking-aadhaar-with-social-media-or-ending-encryption-is-counterproductive
<b>Should Aadhaar be used as KYC for social media accounts? We have recently seen a debate on this question with even the courts hearing arguments in favour and against such a move. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://theprimetime.in/linking-aadhaar-with-social-media-or-ending-encryption-is-counterproductive/">Prime Time</a> on August 26, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The case began in Madras High Court and later Facebook moved the SC seeking transfer of the petition to the Apex court. The original petition was filed in July, 2018 and sought linking of Aadhaar numbers with user accounts to further traceability of messages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Before we try and answer this question, we need to first understand the differences between the different types of data on social media and messaging platforms. If a crime happens on an end to end cryptographically secure channel like WhatsApp the police may request the following from the provider to help solve the case:</p>
<ol>
<li>Identity data: Phone numbers of the accused. Names and addresses of the accused.</li>
<li>Metadata: Sender, receiver(s), time, size of message, flag identifying a forwarded messages, delivery status, read status, etc.</li>
<li>Payload Data: Actual content of the text and multimedia messages.</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Different countries have taken different approaches to solving different layers of the surveillance problem. Let us start with identity data. Some like India require KYC for sale of SIM cards while others like the UK allow anonymous purchases. Corporations also have policies when it comes to anonymous speech on their platforms – Facebook for instance enforces a soft real ID policy while Twitter does not crack down on anonymous speech. The trouble with KYC the old fashioned way is that it exposes citizens to further risk. Every possessor of your identity documents is a potential attack surface. Indian regulation should not result in Indian identity documents being available in the millions to foreign corporations. Technical innovations are possible, like tokenisation, Aadhaar paperless local e-KYC or Aadhaar offline QR code along with one time passwords. These privacy protective alternatives must be mandatory for all and the Aadhaar numbers must be deleted from previously seeded databases. Countries that don’t require KYC have an alternative approach to security and law enforcement. They know that if someone like me commits a crime, it would be easy to catch me because I have been using the same telecom provider for the last fifteen years. This is true of long term customers regardless if they are pre-paid or post-paid. The security risk lies in the new numbers without this history that confirms identity. These countries use targeted big data analytics to determine risk and direct surveillance operations to target new SIM cards. My current understanding is that when it comes to basic user data – all the internet giants in India comply with what they consider as legitimate law enforcement requests. Some proprietary and free and open source [FOSS] alternatives to services offered by the giants don’t provide such direct cooperation in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When it comes to payload data – it is almost impossible (meaning you will need supercomputers) to access the data unless the service/software provider breaks end-to-end cryptography. It is unwise, like some policy-makers are proposing, to prohibit end-to-end cryptography or mandate back doors because our national sovereignty and our capacity for technological self-determination depends on strong cryptography. A targeted ban or prohibition against proprietary providers might have a counterproductive consequence with users migrating to FOSS alternatives like Signal which won’t even give the police identity data. As a supporter of the free software movement, I would see this as a positive development but as a citizen I am aware that the fight against crime and terror will become harder. So government must pursue other strategies to getting payload data such as a comprehensive government hacking programme.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Meta-data is critical when it comes to separating the guilty from the innocent and apportioning blame during an investigation. For example, who was the originator of a message? Who got it and read it last? WhatsApp claims that it has implemented the Signal protocol faithfully meaning that they hold no meta-data when it comes to the messages and calls. Currently there is no regulation which mandates data retention for over the top providers but such requirements do exist for telecom providers. Just like access to meta-data provides some visibility into illegal activities it also provides visibility into legal activities. Therefore those using end-to-end cryptography on platforms with comprehensive meta-data retention policies will have their privacy compromised even though the payload data remains secure. Here is a parallel example to understand why this is important. Early last year, the Internet Engineering Task Force chose a version of TLS 1.3 that revealed less meta-data over one that provided greater visibility into the communications. This hardening of global open standards, through the elimination of availability of meta-data for middle-boxes, makes it harder for foreign governments to intercept Indian military and diplomatic communications via imported telecom infrastructure. Courts and policy makers across the world have to grapple with the following question: Are meta-data retention mandates for the entire population of users a “necessary and proportionate” legal measure to combat crime and terror. For me, it should not be illegal for a provider who voluntarily wishes to retain data, provided it is within legally sanctioned limits but it should not be requirement under law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are technical solutions that are yet to be properly discussed and developed as an alternative to blanket meta-data retention measures. For example, Dr. V Kamakoti has made a traceability proposal at the Madras High Court. This proposal has been critiqued by Anand Venkatanarayanan as being violative in spirit of the principles of end-to-end cryptography. Other technical solutions are required for those seeking justice and for those who wish to serve as informers for terror plots. I have proposed client side metadata retention. If a person who has been subjected to financial fraud wishes to provide all the evidence from their client, it should be possible for them to create a digital signed archive of messages for the police. This could be signed by the sender, the provider and also the receiver so that technical non-repudiation raises the evidentiary quality of the digital evidence. However, there may be other legal requirements such as the provision of notice to the sender so that they know that client side data retention has been turned on.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The need of the hour is sustained research and development of privacy protecting surveillance mechanisms. These solutions need to be debated thoroughly amongst mathematicians, cryptographers, scientists, technologists, lawyers, social scientists and designers so that solutions with the least negative impact can be rolled out either voluntarily by providers or as a result of regulation.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/prime-time-august-26-2019-sunil-abraham-linking-aadhaar-with-social-media-or-ending-encryption-is-counterproductive'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/prime-time-august-26-2019-sunil-abraham-linking-aadhaar-with-social-media-or-ending-encryption-is-counterproductive</a>
</p>
No publishersunilAadhaarInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-08-28T01:39:47ZBlog EntryA judicial overreach into matters of regulation
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-27-2019-a-judicial-overreach-into-matters-of-regulation
<b>A PIL on Aadhaar sheds light on some problematic trends</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Gurshabad Grover was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-judicial-overreach-into-matters-of-regulation/article29262148.ece">published in the Hindu</a> on August 27, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Madras High Court has been hearing a PIL petition since 2018 that initially asked the court to declare the linking of Aadhaar with a government identity proof as mandatory for registering email and social media accounts. The petitioners, victims of online bullying, went to the court because they found that law enforcement agencies were inefficient at investigating cybercrimes, especially when it came to gathering information about pseudonymous accounts on major online platforms. This case brings out some of the most odious trends in policymaking in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first issue is how the courts, as Anuj Bhuwania has argued in the book <em>Courting the People</em>, have continually expanded the scope of issues considered in PILs. In this case, it is absolutely clear that the court is not pondering about any question of law. In what could be considered as abrogation of the separation of powers provision in the Constitution, the Madras High Court started to deliberate on a policy question with a wide-ranging impact: Should Aadhaar be linked with social media accounts?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After ruling out this possibility, it went on to consider a question that is even further out of its purview: Should platforms like WhatsApp that provide encrypted services allow forms of “traceability” to enable finding the originator of content? In essence, the court is now trying to regulate one particular platform on a very specific technical question, ignoring legal frameworks entirely. It is worrying that the judiciary is finding itself increasingly at ease with deliberations on policy and regulatory measures, and its recent actions remind us that the powers of the court also deserve critical questioning.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Government’s support</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, not only are governments failing to assert their own powers of regulation in response to the courts’ actions, they are on the contrary encouraging such PILs. The Attorney General, K.K. Venugopal, who is representing the State of Tamil Nadu in the case, could have argued for the case’s dismissal by referring to the fact that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has already published draft regulations that aim to introduce “traceability” and to increase obligations on social media platforms. Instead, he has largely urged the court to pass regulatory orders.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Third, ‘Aadhaar linking’ is becoming increasingly a refrain whenever any matter even loosely related to identification or investigation of crime is brought up. While the Madras High Court has ruled out such linking for social media platforms, other High Courts are still hearing petitions to formulate such rules. The processes that law enforcement agencies use to get information from platforms based in foreign jurisdictions rely on international agreements. Linking Aadhaar with social media accounts will have no bearing on these processes. Hence, the proposed ‘solution’ misses the problem entirely, and comes with its own threats of infringing privacy.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Problems of investigation</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">That said, investigating cybercrime is a serious problem for law enforcement agencies. However, the proceedings before the court indicate that the cause of the issues have not been correctly identified. While legal provisions that allow agencies to seek information from online platforms already exist in the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Information Technology Act, getting this information from platforms based in foreign jurisdictions can be a long and cumbersome process. For instance, the hurdles posed by the mutual legal assistance treaty between India and the U.S. effectively mean that it might take months to receive a response to information requests sent to U.S.-based platforms, if a response is received at all.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To make cybercrime investigation easier, the Indian government has various options. India should push for fairer executive agreements possible under instruments like the United States’ CLOUD Act, for which we need to first bring our surveillance laws in line with international human rights standards through reforms such as judicial oversight. India could use the threat of data localisation as a leverage to negotiate bilateral agreements with other countries to ensure that agencies have recourse to quicker procedures. As a first step, however, Indian courts must wash their hands of such questions. For its part, the Centre must engage in consultative policymaking around these important issues, rather than support ad-hoc regulation through court orders in PILs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>(</span><em>Disclosure: The CIS is a recipient of research grants from Facebook.</em><span>)</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-27-2019-a-judicial-overreach-into-matters-of-regulation'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-august-27-2019-a-judicial-overreach-into-matters-of-regulation</a>
</p>
No publishergurshabadAadhaarInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-08-28T01:28:52ZBlog EntryLinking Aadhaar to Facebook, Twitter: Possible witch-hunt or key to curb crime & fake news?
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-print-august-21-2019-taran-deol-and-revathi-krishnan-linking-aadhaar-to-facebook-twitter
<b>The Supreme Court has cautioned against linking users’ social media accounts with Aadhaar, saying it will impinge on citizens’ privacy.</b>
<p>The article by Taran Deol and Revathi Krishanan appeared in the Print on August 21, 2019. Gurshabad Grover was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Madras High Court is not adjudicating on a question of law, but acting as a forum for policy-making</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The proceedings in the Aadhaar and social media linkage case in the Madras High Court are very worrying. It is another example of how the courts are continuously expanding the scope of what is permitted as public interest litigation. In this case, the Madras High Court is not adjudicating on a question of law, but acting as a forum for policy-making.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Having said that, cybercrime is a legitimate problem. If law enforcement agencies are unable to investigate crimes, we need to think of other more effective legal instruments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Unfortunately, even the measures that are being deliberated in the court are not identifying the root cause of these problems — retrieving information from online platforms based outside India. And this could be a long and cumbersome process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Instead of thinking about how India can sign bilateral agreements with other countries that can make the process for requesting legal information easier, an entirely unrelated solution is being given. It is in line with the worrying trend of the unchecked issues with the Aadhaar programme, which are now being used as a common excuse to refrain from looking at cases where criminal investigation is required. The solution misses the scope of solving the issue at hand entirely, and carries its own massive risks of infringing privacy and violating freedom of expression.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-print-august-21-2019-taran-deol-and-revathi-krishnan-linking-aadhaar-to-facebook-twitter'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-print-august-21-2019-taran-deol-and-revathi-krishnan-linking-aadhaar-to-facebook-twitter</a>
</p>
No publisherTaran Deol and Revathi KrishananInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-08-27T00:25:14ZNews ItemPolicies for the Platform Economy
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/policies-for-the-platform-economy
<b>Anubha Sinha and Amber Sinha will be panelists in this event being organized by IT for Change at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on August 30, 2019. </b>
<p>The agenda for the event <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/agenda-for-policies-for-the-platform-economy">is here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/policies-for-the-platform-economy'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/policies-for-the-platform-economy</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet GovernanceArtificial Intelligence2019-08-27T00:19:26ZNews ItemImpact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 - IT and Automotive Sector in India by the Dialogue and FES
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/impact-of-industrial-revolution-4-0-it-and-automotive-sector-in-india-by-the-dialogue-and-fes
<b>On August 21, 2019, Aayush Rathi, attended a report launch event and focus group discussion on the "Impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 - IT and Automotive Sector in India". Research conducted by the Dialogue in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) were being presented. </b>
<p class="moz-quote-pre" style="text-align: justify; ">At CIS, we have previously produced research on the future of work in these sectors. Aayush attended the event to understand how other researchers are approaching the subject of the future of work in terms of the methodological approach and the questions being asked and policy responses being proposed. In what may be treated as validation of our research design, FES and the Dialogue have addressed similar questions and adopted an empirical+desk based approach to do so as well.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/impact-of-industrial-revolution-4-0-it-and-automotive-sector-in-india-by-the-dialogue-and-fes'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/impact-of-industrial-revolution-4-0-it-and-automotive-sector-in-india-by-the-dialogue-and-fes</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminIndustry 4.0Internet GovernanceInformation TechnologyArtificial Intelligence2019-08-27T00:13:32ZNews ItemPycon India 2019
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/pycon-india-2019
<b>K. Bhuvana Meenakshi gave a talk at BangPypers organized by Python Software Society in Bangalore on August 25, 2019. She spoke on Let the world experience WebXR!</b>
<p>For more info, <a class="external-link" href="https://www.meetup.com/BangPypers/events/kswpqqyzlbwb/">click here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/pycon-india-2019'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/pycon-india-2019</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet GovernanceInformation Technology2019-08-27T00:04:03ZNews ItemAI is biased, you’ll see if you Google ‘hands’
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-rajmohan-sudhakar-august-25-2019-ai-is-biased-you-see-if-you-google-hands
<b>As it is, the world is unfair. The question now is, do we want automated tech to be unfair too? As we build more and more AI-dependent smart digital infrastructure in our cities and beyond, we have pretty much overlooked the emerging character of artificial intelligence that would have a profound bearing on our nature and future.
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<p>The article by Rajmohan Sudhakar was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-on-the-move/ai-is-biased-you-ll-see-if-you-google-hands-756856.html">Deccan Herald </a>on August 25, 2019. Radhika Radhakrishnan was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Are we happy with algorithms making decisions for us? Naturally, one would expect the algorithm to possess discretion. Herein lies the dilemma. Do you trust an AI algorithm? Though an algorithm can evolve over time drawing on the nature and accuracy of the dataset, it shall nevertheless pick up the prejudices and biases it is exposed to.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Questions on fairness arise at multiple stages of AI design. For instance, who has access to large datasets? The private sector in India. There may not be data at all on marginalised communities while there can be excessive surveillance data on targeted communities. Historic biases in datasets add up: widely used leading datasets of word embeddings associate women as homemakers and men as computer programmers. Focus on FAT (Fairness, Accountability and Transparency) is crucial,” says Radhika Radhakrishnan, programme officer at The Centrefor Internet and Society.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For example, a whopping 90% of the Wikipedia editors are men.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As AI is expected to add 15 trillion US dollars by 2030 to the global economy, at present, the data it relies upon comes from a few nations (45% from the US) while a major chunk of users are elsewhere. As it is vital to any social mechanism, diversity will be key if we are to reap the true benefits of AI. Or else, a non-diverse data set or a programmer crafting an algorithm could chart the most unpleasant course.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Research recommends the inclusion of social scientists in AI design and ensuring they have decision-making power. The AI Now Institute, for instance. However, there is a dearth of social scientists working on AI. In India, we ignore the social impact of AI in favour of the purely technical solutions of computer scientists. Lack of women, gender-queers, and individuals from under-represented communities reflects poor diversity within the AI industry,” Radhakrishnan points out.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The G20 adopted AI Principles in June, which stressed “AI actors should respect the rule of law,human rights and democratic values, throughout the AI system life-cycle. These include freedom, dignity and autonomy, privacy and data protection, non-discrimination and equality,diversity, fairness, social justice, and internationally recognised labour rights.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The UK recently set up the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Canada and France are spearheading the International Panel on Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) on the sidelines of the G7summit. Meanwhile, India and France agreed on a slew of measures to advance cooperation ondigital tech. Of course, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a promising start.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">All of that is well and welcome. But what such efforts and international bodies could achieve in reality is to be seen as questions loom large over private corporations that own tech exercising clout, henceforth leaving AI vulnerable to manipulation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“To achieve this, panel members will need to be protected from direct or indirect lobbying by companies, pressure groups and governments — especially by those who regard ethics as a brake on innovation. That also means that panel members will need to be chosen for their expertise, not for which organisation they represent,” reads an August 21 editorial in Nature journal on IPAI.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Whatever one may do to de-bias AI, much damage is done already. Try a google search for images of hands. How many black/brown hands do you see? There you go.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Whose needs are being reflected in AI — those of the poor or those of the big tech looking to‘dump’ their products in an easily exploitable market? Instead of asking, what is the AI solution,we should be wondering, is an AI-based solution necessary in this case?” adds Radhakrishnan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Where are the big tech located? In the United States. When a white male sitting in that country crafts an algorithm based on a bought dataset, for the benefit of an aboriginal community in the Amazon, something’s amiss.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Engineers and data scientists who design algorithms are often far removed from the socioeconomic contexts of the people they are designing the tools for. So, they reproduce ideologies that are damaging. They end up reinforcing prejudices. Direct engagement is rare. Engineers should actively and carefully challenge their biases and assumptions by engaging meaningfully with communities to understand their histories and needs,” explains Radhakrishnan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The march of AI cannot be stopped as more and more datasets get integrated. An ethical approach to computer science and engineering should begin from our institutions of excellence.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Computer science and engineering disciplines at the undergraduate level teach AI as a purelytechnical subject, not as an interdisciplinary subject. Engineers should be trained in the socialimplications of the systems they design. Technology inevitably reects its creators, consciousor not. Therefore, deeper attention to the social contexts of AI and the potential impact of suchsystems when applied to human populations should be incorporated to university curricula,”notes Radhakrishnan.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-rajmohan-sudhakar-august-25-2019-ai-is-biased-you-see-if-you-google-hands'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-rajmohan-sudhakar-august-25-2019-ai-is-biased-you-see-if-you-google-hands</a>
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No publisherRajmohan SudhakarInternet Governance2019-08-26T23:53:38ZNews Item