Centre for Internet and Society

Consultation on Draft E-commerce Policy

Admin — 2019-03-20T15:47:02Z

Alternative Law Forum and IT for Change organized a public consultation on draft e-commerce policy on March 14, 2019 at Tony Hall, Ashirwad , Off St.Marks Road in Bangalore. Arindrajit Basu attended the event.

The newly created Department Promotion of Industry and Indian Trade has published a draft e-commerce policy ( [ https://dipp.gov.in/whats-new/draft-national-e-commerce-policy-stakeholder-comments | https://dipp.gov.in/whats-new/draft-national-e-commerce-policy-stakeholder-comments ] ) inviting public comments with a deadline of March end. All actors involved in commerce – from traders, to street vendors, to vendors selling on online platforms, apart from domestic and foreign e-commerce companies are greatly impacted by this new policy. At one level, this policy would determine the relative power among these actors vying for the Indian retail space. At another level, however, the draft policy is about who should own personal, social and commercial data that is behind e-commerce – whether people and communities about whom the data is or it can entirely be owned and appropriated by the e-commerce companies, mostly foreign ones, who collect the data. EU is also examining whether data about and around products put by sellers on online platforms is owned by the these sellers or by platforms. These are issues which need wide and deep discussions by all sections of society from traders , technology enthusiasts, lawyers, civil society and all others. However there is very little public discussions on the same. It is towards this end that we are organising this discussions. We would also like to explore possible inputs that different groups can make to the policy. The Joint Action Committee Against Foreign Retail and E-commerce is one group that has prepared some points on behalf of traders community, which are enclosed, and these too can be discussed at the meeting among others.

The discussion was a first of many more discussions. The participants of this consultation were researchers, lawyers, street vendors union representatives, traders associations representatives and others.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consultation-on-draft-e-commerce-policy

Wie die chinesische Mega-App TikTok Indiens Wahlkampf beeinflussen könnte

praskrishna — 2019-03-20T15:20:12Z

Die chinesische Kurzvideo-App Tiktok gehört zu den wertvollsten Start-ups der Welt – und sie wird zunehmend politisch. In Indien weckt das Ängste.

The article by Frederic Spohr was published in Handelsblatt on March 13, 2019. Shweta Mohandas was quoted.

Angela Merkel spricht Hindi, zumindest auf der chinesischen Social-Media-App TikTok. In einem Satire-Video steht die Bundeskanzlerin neben dem indischen Premierminister Narendra Modi – und erklärt dem indischen Regierungschef, dass sie ihn gerne heiraten und mit ihm für immer zusammenleben will. Das sagt Merkels indische Synchronstimme. Die App TikTok, mit der Nutzer selbst gedrehte oder bearbeitete Kurzvideos teilen, ist die derzeit wohl erfolgreichste App der Welt. Das dahinter stehende Start-up Bytedance wird mit umgerechnet 66 Milliarden Euro so hoch bewertet ist wie kein anderes junges Unternehmen. Indien ist dabei der mittlerweile wichtigste Auslandsmarkt für die Chinesen. Mehr als 250 Millionen Inder haben die App bereits heruntergeladen. Monatlich kommen Dutzende weitere Millionen dazu.

Doch der Erfolg der chinesischen App hat auch Ängste geweckt. Ab dem 11. April wird auf dem Subkontinent ein neues Parlament gewählt – und wie in vielen anderen Ländern wächst in Indien die Sorge, dass über Social-Media-Plattformen Wahlen manipuliert werden, zum Beispiel weil darüber Falschnachrichten verbreitet, geheime Wählerprofile angelegt oder die Plattformen für Spionage genutzt werden könnten. Das gilt nun nicht mehr nur für Facebook oder Twitter, sondern auch für TikTok – und wegen seiner chinesischen Herkunft vielleicht insbesondere dafür.

Dass TikTok aus China kommt, ist problematisch, weil es bezüglich Datensammlung und -verarbeitung weniger transparent als andere Social-Media-Apps ist“, sagt Shweta Mohandas, Politik-Beauftragte beim Centre for Internet and Society (Cis) in Bangalore.

Der Subkontinent wird so zu einem Testfall für die wachsende politische Bedeutung chinesischer Social-Media-Apps im Ausland. TikTok ist auch in Amerika und Europa bereits weit verbreitet – und hat bereits Kritiker alarmiert. „Die Reichweite dieser Apps zu ignorieren, wäre ein fataler Fehler“, warnt Claudia Biancotti, leitender Ökonom am amerikanischen Thinktank Peterson Institute for International Economics in einem Blogbeitrag über TikTok.

Für Biancotti ist der Umgang mit chinesischen Social-Media-Apps von ähnlich großer Bedeutung wie der Umgang mit dem chinesischen Mobilfunkausrüster Huawei. „Die Tiefe der gesammelten Nutzerdaten machen sie zu sehr wirksamen Instrumenten sowohl für die Spionage als auch für die Manipulation der öffentlichen Meinung.“ Fünf der zehn beliebtesten Apps im indischen Android-Appstore kamen 2018 bereits aus China.

Anzahl politischer Videos nimmt zu

TikTok wirkt vollkommen unpolitisch. Wie in Deutschland überwiegen auch in Indien kurzweilige Witzvideos und private Videoclips. Die meisten Inhalte auf der App sind Musikvideos von Jugendlichen, die mit Effekten aufgehübscht werden. Auch das Merkel-Video ist kein Manipulationsversuch und dürfte für die meisten als klare Satire erkennbar sein.

Doch die Anzahl politischer Videos auf TikTok hat in Indien vor den Wahlen stark zugenommen: Viele junge Menschen erklären beispielsweise, warum sie welchen Politiker wählen werden. Videos mit dem Hashtag NarendraModi wurden fast 30 Millionen mal angesehen, Clips zu seinem Herausforderer Rahul Gandhi wurden rund 12 Millionen Mal angeguckt.

Viele junge Menschen verwenden TikTok und soziale Medien, um mit der Welt zu kommunizieren. Die politischen Parteien haben das erkannt und versuchen, auf die Erstwähler Eindruck zu machen“, sagt Cis-Expertin Mohandas.

Besonders beliebt ist die App auf dem Land. In der Provinz leben die meisten Inder, gleichzeitig ist hier der Bildungsstandard besonders gering. Diese Zielgruppe dürfte am einfachsten zu manipulieren sein.

Subtile Beeinflussung möglich

Eine Beeinflussung könnte theoretisch so subtil verlaufen, dass sie kaum zu überprüfen ist. Möglich wäre beispielsweise ein Szenario, bei dem auf Druck der chinesischen Regierung die Algorithmen so geändert werden, dass Nutzer bestimmte Inhalte verstärkt gezeigt bekommen – oder dass unliebsame Inhalte überhaupt nicht angezeigt werden. In China selbst filtert die heimische App WeChat bereits kritische Inhalte heraus, ohne Sender oder Empfänger zu benachrichtigen.

Wie in Deutschland wurde in Indien bisher bezüglich TikTok vor allem über den Schutz der Privatsphäre von Kindern gesprochen. Die Jugendlichen präsentieren sich in den Videos oft in freizügigen Posen, die Pädophile anlocken könnten. Die generelle Datenschutzproblematik aufgrund des chinesischen Ursprungs des Unternehmens und die mögliche Verbreitung von Falschnachrichten gerät nun aber immer stärker in den Fokus.

Das indische IT-Ministerium kündigte bereits im Februar eine stärkere Regulierung der Social-Media-Apps an. Einflussreiche Hindu-Nationalisten haben sich sogar für ein Verbot der chinesischen Apps ausgesprochen. Die Angriffe dürften dabei auch wirtschaftliche Hintergründe haben: Angesichts der chinesischen und amerikanischen Dominanz geraten indische Konkurrenzangebote immer stärker ins Hintertreffen.

TikTok selbst wehrt sich vehement gegen die Vorwürfe. Es verweist darauf, sich an alle aktuellen Gesetze zu halten und die Inhalte auf der Plattform in zahlreichen Landessprachen zu überwachen. „Die Privatsphäre und Sicherheit unserer Benutzer hat für TikTok höchste Priorität, und wir halten uns an die lokalen Gesetze und Vorschriften in den Märkten, in denen wir tätig sind“, teilt das Unternehmen dem Handelsblatt mit. „TikTok-Benutzerdaten werden in den USA und anderen Märkten, in denen TikTok über branchenführende Rechenzentren von Drittanbietern tätig ist, gespeichert und verarbeitet.“

Rückendeckung bekommt das Unternehmen von der chinesischen Regierung. In einem Artikel der englischsprachigen Parteizeitung „Global Times“ heißt es, TikTok werde von Amerika wie Huawei als Sicherheitsrisiko dargestellt, um Chinas technologischen Aufstieg zu verhindern. TikTok sei nur eine „Unterhaltungs-App für Menschen auf der ganzen Welt, die Spaß und Entspannung wollen“.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/handelsblatt-frederic-spohr-march-13-2019-wahlkampf-beeinflussung-wie-die-chinesische-mega-app-tiktok-indiens-wahlkampf-beeinflussen-koennte

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India

Karan Saini, Pranesh Prakash and Elonnai Hickok — 2019-04-01T12:02:05Z

The aim of this policy brief is to recommend changes pertaining to current legislation, policy and practice to the Government of India regarding external vulnerability reporting and disclosure. The changes we recommend within this brief aim to strengthen the processes around voluntary vulnerability and bug disclosure by third parties.

This is an update to our previously released paper titled "Leveraging the Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Process to Improve the State of Information Security in India". The full document can be accessed here.

The ubiquitous adoption and integration of information and communication technologies in almost all aspects of modern life raises with it the importance of being able to ensure the security and integrity of the systems and resources that we rely on. This importance is even more pressing for the Government, which is increasing its push of efforts towards digitising the operational infrastructure it relies on, both at the State as well as the Central level.

This policy brief draws from knowledge that has been gathered from various sources, including information sourced from newspaper and journal articles, current law and policy, as well as from interviews that we conducted with various members of the Indian security community. This policy brief touches upon the issue of vulnerability disclosures, specifically those that are made by individuals to the Government, while exploring prevalent challenges with the same and making recommendations as to how the Government’s vulnerability disclosure processes could potentially be improved.

Key learnings from the research include:

There is a noticeable shortcoming in the availability of information with regard to current vulnerability disclosure programmes and process of Indian Government entities, which is only exacerbated further by a lack of transparency;
There is an observable gap in the amount and quality of interaction between security researchers and the Government, which is supported by the lack of proper channels for mediating such communication and cooperation;
There are several sections and provisions within the Information Technology Act, 2000, which have the potential to disincentivise legitimate security research, even if the same has been carried out in good faith.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/improving-the-processes-for-disclosing-security-vulnerabilities-to-government-entities-in-india

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India.pdf

karan — 2019-03-20T08:12:07Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/Improving%20the%20Processes%20for%20Disclosing%20Security%20Vulnerabilities%20to%20Government%20Entities%20in%20India.pdf

Artificial Intelligence for India's Transformation

Admin — 2019-03-20T01:38:48Z

ASSOCHAM's 3rd International Conference was organized at Hotel Imperial in New Delhi. Amber Sinha a session on use, impact and ethics in AI.

Click to view the agenda.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/artificial-intelligence-for-indias-transformation

AI in Ethics Agenda

Admin — 2019-03-20T01:33:21Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/ai-in-ethics-agenda

The Localisation Gambit: Unpacking policy moves for the sovereign control of data in India

Arindrajit Basu, Elonnai Hickok and Aditya Singh Chawla — 2019-05-21T15:24:58Z

Edited by: Pranav M.B., Vipul Kharbanda and Amber Sinha Research Assistance: Anjanaa Aravindan

The full paper can be accessed here.

Executive Summary

The vision of a borderless internet that functions as an open distributed network is slowly ceding ground to a space that is greatly political, and at risk of fragmentation due to cultural, economic, and geo-political differences. A variety of measures for asserting sovereign control over data within national territories is a manifestation of this trend. Over the past year, the Indian government has drafted and introduced multiple policy instruments which dictate that certain types of data must be stored in servers located physically within the territory of India. These localization gambits have triggered virulent debate among corporations, civil society actors, foreign stakeholders, business guilds, politicians, and governments. This White Paper seeks to serve as a resource for stakeholders attempting to intervene in this debate and arrive at a workable solution where the objectives of data localisation are met through measures that have the least negative impact on India’s economic, political, and legal interests. We begin this paper by studying the pro-localisation policies in India. We have defined data localisation as 'any legal limitation on the ability for data to move globally and remain locally.' These policies can take a variety of forms. This could include a specific requirement to locally store copies of data, local content production requirements, or imposing conditions on cross border data transfers that in effect act as a localization mandate.Presently, India has four sectoral policies that deal with localization requirements based on type of data, for sectors including banking, telecom, and health - these include the RBI Notification on ‘Storage of Payment System Data’, the FDI Policy 2017, the Unified Access License, and the Companies Act, 2013 and its Rules, The IRDAI (Outsourcing of Activities by Indian Insurers) Regulations, 2017, and the National M2M Roadmap.

At the same time, 2017 and 2018 has seen three separate proposals for comprehensive and sectoral localization requirements based on type of data across sectors including the draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2018, draft e-commerce policy, and the draft e-pharmacy regulations. The policies discussed reflect objectives such as enabling innovation, improving cyber security and privacy, enhancing national security, and protecting against foreign surveillance. The subsequent section reflects on the objectives of such policy measures, and the challenges and implications for individual rights, markets, and international relations. We then go on to discuss the impacts of these policies on India’s global and regional trade agreements. We look at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and its implications for digital trade and point out the significance of localisation as a point of concern in bilateral trade negotiations with the US and the EU. We then analyse the responses of fifty-two stakeholders on India’s data localisation provisions using publicly available statements and submissions. Most civil society groups - both in India and abroad are ostensibly against blanket data localisation, the form which is mandated by the Srikrishna Bill. Foreign stakeholders including companies such as Google and Facebook, politicians including US Senators, and transnational advocacy groups such as the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, were against localisation citing it as a grave trade restriction and an impediment to a global digital economy which relies on the cross-border flow of data. The stance taken by companies such as Google and Facebook comes as no surprise, since they would likely incur huge costs in setting up data centres in India if the localisation mandate was implemented.

Stakeholders arguing for data localisation included politicians and some academic and civil society voices that view this measure as a remedy for ‘data colonialism’ by western companies and governments. Large Indian corporations, such as Reliance, that have the capacity to build their own data centres or pay for their consumer data to be stored on data servers support this measure citing the importance of ‘information sovereignty.’ However, industry associations such as NASSCOM and Internet and Mobile Association of Indian (IAMAI) are against the mandate citing a negative impact on start-ups that may not have the financial capacity to fulfil the compliance costs required. Leading private players in the digital economy, such as Phone Pe and Paytm support the mandate on locally storing payments data as they believe it might improve the condition of financial security services. As noted earlier, various countries have begun to implement restrictions on the cross-border flow of data. We studied 18 countries that have such mandates and found that models can differ on the basis of the strength and type of mandate, as well as the type of data to which the restriction applies, and sectors to which the mandate extends to. These models can be used by india to think think through potential means of pushing through a localisation mandate. Our research suggests that the various proposed data localization measures, serve the primary objective of ensuring sovereign control over Indian data. Various stakeholders have argued that data localisation is a way of asserting Indian sovereignty over citizens’ data and that the data generated by Indian individuals must be owned by Indian corporations. It has been argued that Indian citizens’ data must be governed my Indian laws, security standards and protocols.

However, given the complexity of technology, the interconnectedness of global data flows, and the potential economic and political implications of localization requirements - approaches to data sovereignty and localization should be nuanced. In this section we seek to posit the building blocks which can propel research around these crucial issues. We have organized these questions into the broader headings of prerequisites, considerations, and approaches:

PRE-REQUISITES

From our research, we find that any thinking on data localisation requirements must be preceded with the following prerequisites, in order to protect fundamental rights, and promote innovation.

Is the national, legal infrastructure and security safeguards adequate to support localization requirements?

Are human rights, including privacy and freedom of expression online and offline, adequately protected and upheld in practice?

Do domestic surveillance regimes have adequate safeguards and checks and balances?

Does the private and public sector adhere to robust privacy and security standards and what should be the measure to ensure protection of data?

CONSIDERATIONS

What are the objectives of localization?

Innovation and Local ecosystem

The Srikrishna Committee Report specifically refers to the value in developing an indigenous Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. Much like the other AI strategies produced by the NITI Aayog and the Task Force set up by the Commerce Department, it states that AI can be a key driver in all areas of economic growth, and cites developments in China and the USA as instances of reference.

National Security, Law Enforcement and Protection from Foreign Surveillance

As recognised by the Srikrishna White Paper, a disproportionate amount of data belonging to Indian citizens is stored in the United States, and the presently existing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties process (MLATs) through which Indian law enforcement authorities gain access to data stored in the US is excessively slow and cumbersome.
The Srikrishna Committee report also states that undersea cable networks that transmit data from one country to another are vulnerable to attack.
The report suggests that localisation might help protect Indian citizens against foreign surveillance.

What are the potential spill-overs and risks of a localisation mandate?

Diplomatic and political: Localisation could impact India’s trade relationships with its partners.
Security risks (“Regulatory stretching of the attack surface”): Storing data in multiple physical centres naturally increases the physical exposure to exploitation by individuals physically obtaining data or accessing the data remotely. So, the infrastructure needs to be backed up with robust security safeguards and significant costs to that effect.
Economic impact: Restrictions on cross-border data flow may harm overall economic growth by increasing compliance costs and entry barriers for foreign service providers and thereby reducing investment or passing on these costs to the consumers. The major compliance issue is the significant cost of setting up a data centre in India combined with the unsuitability of weather conditions. Further, for start-ups looking to attain global stature, reciprocal restrictions slapped by other countries may prevent access to the data in several other jurisdictions.

What are the existing alternatives to attain the same objectives?

The objective and potential alternatives are listed below:

OBJECTIVE	ALTERNATE
Law enforcement access to data	Pursuing international consensus through negotiations rooted in international law
Widening tax base by taxing entities that do not have an economic presence in India	Equalisation levy/Taxing entities with a Significant Economic Presence in India (although an enforcement mechanism still needs to be considered).
Threat to fibre-optic cables	Building of strong defense alliances with partners to protect key choke points from adversaries and threats
Boost to US based advertisement revenue driven companies like Facebook and Google (‘data colonisation’)	Developing robust standards and paradigms of enforcement for competition law

APPROACH

What data might be beneficial to store locally for ensuring national interest? What data could be mandated to stay within the borders of the country? What are the various models that can be adopted?

Mandatory Sectoral Localisation: Instead of imposing a generalized mandate, it may be more useful to first identify sectors or categories of data that may benefit most from local storage.

b. ‘Conditional (‘Soft’) Localisation: For all data not covered within the localisation mandate, India should look to develop conditional prerequisites for transfer of all kinds of data to any jurisdiction, like the Latin American countries, or the EU. This could be conditional on two key factors:

Equivalent privacy and security safeguards: Transfers should only be allowed to countries which uphold the same standards. In order to do this, India must first develop and incorporate robust privacy and security protections.
Agreement to share data with law enforcement officials when needed: India should allow cross-border transfer only to countries that agree toshare data with Indian authorities based on standards set by Indian law.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-localisation-gambit-unpacking-policy-moves-for-the-sovereign-control-of-data-in-india

The Localisation Gambit.pdf

karan — 2019-05-21T15:23:09Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf

Digital Knowledge - Posts

sumandro — 2019-03-16T05:24:24Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-knowledge-posts

Digital Knowledge

sumandro — 2019-03-16T06:31:14Z

In this cluster, we study the digital conditions of production, circulation, consumption, appropriation, storage, and re-usage of various forms of knowledge in India. It brings together our interests in digital literacy, education and pedagogy; technological infrastructures and devices of digital learning; open access, open educational resources, open data, and open knowledge practices in general and their ecosystems; Internet and the emerging authorities, modes, and platforms of knowledge and education; computational methods in arts, humanities, social science, and natural science research; and software and hardware innovations towards knowledge infrastructures and practices.

Digital Knowledge: All Posts

Previous Projects

Data Systems

sumandro — 2019-03-16T06:29:37Z

The systems and economies of data has emerged as a key concern of the contemporary 'information'/'informatising' societies. In this cluster we explore the various manifestations and implications of digital data in the context of the Indian society and government – supply, demand, and usages of government data; electronic government and data-driven delivery of services; Internet of things, locative media, and smart cities; infrastructures, systems, and circuits of data collection, storage, sharing, and re-usage; and concerns of ownership and privacy around personal data.

Data Systems: All Posts

Ongoing Projects

Urban Data Justice (2019)

Life of a Tuple: National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Reform of Citizen Identification Infrastructure in Assam (2018-2019)

In a relational database, a tuple is an ordered set of data constituting a record. Imagine a relational database as a table with pre-defined columns that define the scope of information required for each row. A tuple is a row in this table. Ultimately, in any database designed to ease practices of governance, the life story of a citizen becomes a tuple after the process of data collection, verification, and curation. This tuple has its own life and this project is designed around documenting its life story, which may or may not map seamlessly onto the life of the citizen that it aims to capture, encode, represent, and ultimately, alter.

Our research investigates the process of updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam as a case study to focus on one of the core problems of governance: the unique identification of citizens by the state. The NRC, as a part of the National Population Register (NPR), is a list of only Indian citizens, and is presently in the process of being updated only in Assam [1]. Our effort is geared towards tracing the process of updating the NRC from its conceptualization and design to its current deployment, while also closely attending to current on-the-ground reactions to its implementation.

Project outputs: https://cis-india.org/raw/life-of-a-tuple/

Big Data for Development Network

Big Data for Development (BD4D) Research Network is a Southern-led partnership with the objective of developing policy relevant research on big data for development that is conceptualized and implemented by Southern organizations. The network acts to develop capacity amongst researchers from the Global South, focusing on activities linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to those that address gender related issues. The work encompasses both big data analyses as well as capacity development, while innovating on data partnerships and collaborations with private sector companies and policy makers. The network is supported by a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.

As part of the BD4D Network, we at the CIS are studying BD4D innovations, policy, practices, and discourse with a focus on the research methods involved; and offering research and pedagogic support towards other hubs of the Network.

Network website: http://bd4d.net/

Network blog: https://medium.com/bd4dnet

Project outputs: https://cis-india.org/raw/bd4d/

Previous Projects

Big Data and Development - Field Studies

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/data-systems

Big Data for Development Network

sumandro — 2019-05-22T11:04:26Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/bd4d

Data Systems - Posts

sumandro — 2019-03-16T04:35:55Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/data-systems-posts

Conference on Future of Tech Policy in India

Admin — 2019-03-16T02:34:18Z

SFLC.in organised a Conference on Future of Tech Policy in India on 15 March 2019 in New Delhi to discuss issues related to Rights on the Internet.

A report by SFLC.in titled ‘Intermediary Liability in India: The Legal Landscape and Notable Developments’ was launched on the occasion. Amber Sinha was a speaker in Session 1 on 'Misinformation and Intermediary Liability'.

Context for the Discussions

Internet has emerged as a critical infrastructure of our times, an ecosystem for democratic exchange of information, economic growth and evolution of new political culture. Due to the indispensability of Internet in our daily lives, the intertwined issues of fake news, online harassment, Internet shutdowns and the use of online platforms affect us deeply. Misinformation and online harassment often translate into grave physical violence. Most solutions to these have been reactionary and lack a well debated, planned and strategic approach. The Government has proposed the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2019, (Draft Rules) that threatens free speech and privacy rights by pushing intermediaries to take proactive steps to censor online content. A Draft National E-Commerce Policy released recently is being perceived a barrier to free flow of data across borders as it recommends data localization among other things. Self regulatory measures taken by technology companies in the form of Community Guidelines lack transparency and have not sufficiently addressed user concerns. Unsurprisingly, we have not yet arrived at a solution that can balance our rights with public security concerns.

A safe, inclusive, accessible and democratic Internet cannot become a reality unless the solutions are driven by a true mutli-stakeholder discussion. To collectively answer these questions and brainstorm ideas to inform the policy debate in tech policy, we invite you to our Conference on Future of Tech Policy in India, where we will be launching our report on ‘Intermediary Liability in India: The Legal Landscape and Notable Developments’.

SFLC.in recently organised discussions on Misinformation and Intermediary Liability in New Delhi (Jan 11, Jan 18, Feb 13), Bengaluru (Jan 15), Mumbai (Jan 16), Kochi (Jan 30) and Hyderabad (Feb 12). SFLC.in also published a Blue Paper containing comments, remarks and inputs received during the above-mentioned discussions.

Broad Agenda

09:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. - Registration
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - Session 1: Misinformation and Intermediary Liability + Report Launch
11:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. - Tea Break
11:45 a.m. to 01:15 p.m. - Session 2: The Role of Social Media in Elections
01:15 p.m. to 02:00 p.m. - Lunch Break
02:00 p.m. to 03:15 p.m. - Session 3: Online Harassment
03:15 p.m. to 03:30 p.m. - Tea Break
03:30 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. - Session 4: The Future of Tech Policy

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-future-of-tech-policy-in-india

Free Speech Agenda

praskrishna — 2019-03-16T02:22:45Z

Free Speech Agenda

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/FreeSpeechSymposium_Agenda_02.jpg

Centre for Internet and Society

Consultation on Draft E-commerce Policy

Wie die chinesische Mega-App TikTok Indiens Wahlkampf beeinflussen könnte

Anzahl politischer Videos nimmt zu

Subtile Beeinflussung möglich

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India

Key learnings from the research include:

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India.pdf

Artificial Intelligence for India's Transformation

AI in Ethics Agenda

The Localisation Gambit: Unpacking policy moves for the sovereign control of data in India

The Localisation Gambit.pdf

Digital Knowledge - Posts

Digital Knowledge

Digital Knowledge: All Posts

Previous Projects

Indian Newspapers' Digital Transition (2016)

Mapping Digital Humanities in India (2014-2016)

Pathways to Higher Education

The Digital Classroom in the Time of Wikipedia (2012)

Data Systems

Data Systems: All Posts

Ongoing Projects

Urban Data Justice (2019)

Life of a Tuple: National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Reform of Citizen Identification Infrastructure in Assam (2018-2019)

Big Data for Development Network

Previous Projects

Big Data and Development - Field Studies

Big Data for Development Network

Data Systems - Posts

Conference on Future of Tech Policy in India

Context for the Discussions

Broad Agenda

Free Speech Agenda