The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
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Proposals to regulate social media run into multiple roadblocks
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-november-27-2019-saumya-tewari-and-abhijit-ahaskar-proposals-to-regulate-social-media-run-into-multiple-roadblocks
<b>The Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Pegasus spyware attack on WhatsApp and the growing misuse of social media platforms to spread misinformation have made governments world over, including in India, realise the limitations of existing laws in dealing with the misuse of these platforms.</b>
<p>The article by Saumya Tewari and Abhijit Ahaskar was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/proposals-to-regulate-social-media-run-into-multiple-roadblocks-11574814789168.html">published by Livemint</a> on November 27, 2019. Gurshabad Grover was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The draft guidelines are already in place and we have invited comments from all stakeholders across the country for the same. We have already conducted nationwide discussion with social activists, platforms and states and committed to the court that we will submit the intermediary guidelines by 15 January," said N.N. Kaul, media adviser to electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The need for greater regulation of social media companies stems from the growing feeling that they are not doing enough to curb the misuse of their platforms. In recent times, many of them have been involved in brushes with the government and courts. For instance, short-video app TikTok was accused of promoting pornography among teens and temporarily banned from app stores following a Madras high court order; WhatsApp was slammed for not being able to curb fake messages which led to several cases of mob lynchings in 2018 and, more recently, for the Pegasus spyware attack. Twitter too has been criticised for failing to curb hate speech.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the draft talks about intermediaries as a whole and doesn’t specify any particular segment, the proposals that apply to social media companies include setting up an India office and having a nodal officer for liaising with the government, furnishing information within 24 hours and tracing the source of a post or information. While forcing companies to have a nodal officer in the country can make these platforms more accountable to legal requests, it also makes them vulnerable to government pressure.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Having offices in India allows the government to exert extralegal pressure on the company officials by forcing them to comply with informal requests. It is only useful if the intermediaries are willing to push back on the pressure and not entertain any informal request from the government," said Gurshabad Grover, research manager at the Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">China-based TikTok, in a statement, emphasised that it is committed to respecting local laws and actively coordinates with law enforcement agencies through an India-based grievance officer. TikTok claims to have removed six million videos between July 2018 and April 2019 for violation of its guidelines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Mint.jpg" alt="Mint" class="image-inline" title="Mint" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some of these proposals have been flagged on grounds of privacy. For instance, the traceability clause is going to have a huge impact on specific platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram that encrypt all messages and calls. Enforcing traceability and deploying technology-based automated tools to proactively identify and disable public access to malicious content will force them to break or lower the encryption as has been pointed out by industry in the past.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">WhatsApp maintained its official stance from February and reiterated that what is contemplated by the rules is not possible today given the end-to-end encryption that it provides. The rules would require the company to re-architect WhatsApp, which would lead to a different product, one that would not be fundamentally private.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The fact that India doesn’t have an encryption law per say also complicates the scenario. In fact, section 84A (introduced after an amendment in 2008) of IT Act 2000 has specific provisions authorizing central government for coming up with a policy on encryption. It has been 11 years but there is still no law on it," said Pavan Duggal, a cyberlaw expert.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, to ensure that companies abide by the proposed rules and furnish information within 24 hours, the government will have to address hurdles in mutual legal assistance treaty between India and the US, which is why many of these requests take a lot of time to process. “The target of the government should be having an executive agreement with the US under the Cloud Act. The US has significant stakes in the data localization debate as many of the companies are based in the US, and that can be used as leverage to negotiate such an agreement. That will allow law enforcement agencies in India to have expedited access to information held by platforms which are based outside the country," Grover said.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-november-27-2019-saumya-tewari-and-abhijit-ahaskar-proposals-to-regulate-social-media-run-into-multiple-roadblocks'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-november-27-2019-saumya-tewari-and-abhijit-ahaskar-proposals-to-regulate-social-media-run-into-multiple-roadblocks</a>
</p>
No publisherSaumya Tewari and Abhijit AhaskarInternet Governance2019-11-28T14:16:25ZNews ItemProject on Gender, Health Communications and Online Activism with City University
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/project-on-gender-health-communications-and-online-activism-with-city-university
<b>CIS is a partner on the project 'Gender, Health Communications and Online Activism in the Digital Age'. The project is lead by Dr. Carolina Matos, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Media in the Department of Sociology at City University.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre">It is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund. Ambika Tandon, Policy Officer at CIS, conducted fieldwork for the project in May and June 2019 as a research assistant.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre">The goal of the project is to advance research on how new communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to create awareness of gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights. It aims to assess how the use of technologies, by women's groups and feminist NGOs can empower women in developing countries to advance citizen and human rights with the intent to influence policy at the global and local level. More information on the preliminary findings of the project can be found in the downloadable presentation."</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" class="moz-quote-pre">You may find Dr. Carolina Matos's presentation <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/presentation-gender-health-communications-and-online-activism-in-the-digital-age-pdf" class="internal-link" title="Presentation: Gender, Health Communications, and Online Activism in the Digital Age (PDF)">here</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/project-on-gender-health-communications-and-online-activism-with-city-university'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/project-on-gender-health-communications-and-online-activism-with-city-university</a>
</p>
No publisherambikaGenderInternet Governance2019-12-02T09:38:21ZBlog EntryCybersecurity Visuals Media Handbook: Launch Event
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cybersecurity-visuals-media-handbook-launch-event
<b>6th December | 6 pm | Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore</b>
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<p>The existing cybersecurity imagery in media publications has been observed to be limited in its communication of the discourse prevailing in cybersecurity policy circles, relying heavily on stereotypes such as hooded men, padlocks, and binary codes.</p>
<p><br />In order to enable a clearer, more nuanced representation of cybersecurity concepts, we, at CIS, along with <a class="external-link" href="http://designbeku.in/">Design Beku</a> are launching the Cybersecurity Visuals Media Handbook. This handbook has been conceived to be a concise guide for media publications to understand the specific concepts within cybersecurity and use it as a reference to create visuals that are more informative, relevant, and look beyond stereotypes.</p>
<p>We will be launching the interactive digital handbook on 6th December, 2019, at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, at 6 pm. The event would include a discussion on the purpose, process, and concepts behind this illustrated guide by CIS researchers and Design Beku.</p>
<p>The launch will be followed by a panel discussion on Digital Media Illustrations & the Politics of Technology. We will be joined by Padmini Ray Murray, Paulanthony George, and Kruthika N S in the panel. It will be moderated by Saumyaa Naidu.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Padmini Ray Murray</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Padmini founded the Design Beku collective in 2018 to help not-for-profit organisations explore their potential through research-led design and digital development. Trained as an academic researcher, Padmini currently as the head of communications at Obvious, a design studio. She regularly gives talks and publishes on the necessity of technology and design to be decolonial, local, and ethical. <strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Paulanthony George</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Paulanthony hates writing bios in the third person.<br />My research focuses on the relationships between made objects, the maker and the behaviour of making, in the context of spreadable digital media (and behaviours stemming from it). I study internet memes inside and outside of India and phenomenon such as dissent, satire, free expression and ambivalent behaviour fostered by them. The research is at the intersection of digital ethnography, culture studies, human-computer interaction, humour studies and critical theory. I spend my time watching people. I draw them, the way they are, the way some people want to be and sometimes I have interesting conversations with them.</p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-5cb9e515-7fff-777e-6b99-8a216379ee39">
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<p dir="ltr"><strong>Kruthika N S</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Kruthika NS is a lawyer at LawNK and researcher at the Sports Law & Policy Centre, Bengaluru. She uses art as a medium to explore the intersections of the law and society, with gender justice featuring as the central theme of her work. Her art has included subjects such as the #MeToo movement in India, and the feminist principles of the internet, among several other doodles.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Saumyaa Naidu</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Saumyaa is a designer and researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society. <strong> </strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><br /><strong>Agenda</strong><br />6:00 - 6:15 pm - Introduction <br />6:15 - 6:45 pm - Presentation on the Media Handbook by Paulanthony George<br />6:45 - 7:00 pm - Tea/ Coffee <br />7:00 - 8:00 pm - Panel discussion on Digital Media Illustrations & the Politics of Technology<br />8:00 - 8:30 pm - Tea/ Coffee and Snacks</p>
<p>The interactive version of handbook can be accessed <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.github.io/cybersecurityvisuals/index">here</a>. The print versions of the handbook can be accessed at: <a class="external-link" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Llq1vD5Eb-yo2YE3X6dRPaZ_WsMYhfa/view?usp=sharing">Single Scroll Printing</a>, <a class="external-link" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mK_lxA0Eeb7GWxqZk4IM3cBxKdWakKS9/view?usp=sharing">Tiled-Paste Printing</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cybersecurity-visuals-media-handbook-launch-event'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cybersecurity-visuals-media-handbook-launch-event</a>
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No publishersaumyaaCybersecurityCyber SecurityEventInternet Governance2019-12-06T09:27:37ZEventBlockchain: A primer for India
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/blockchain-a-primer-for-india
<b>This report is presently being updated.</b>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/blockchain-a-primer-for-india'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/blockchain-a-primer-for-india</a>
</p>
No publisherAnusha MadhusudhanBlockchainInternet GovernanceCryptocurrencies2020-03-30T13:32:58ZBlog EntryActivists demand judicial probe into WhatsApp snooping
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-businessline-november-1-2019-kv-kurmanath-activists-demand-judicial-probe-into-whatsapp-snooping
<b>Calls for Parliamentary supervision over Government interception, legal hacking.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by K.V. Kurmanath was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/social-media/activists-demand-judicial-probe-into-whatsapp-snooping/article29851296.ece">published in the Hindu Businessline</a> on November 1, 2019. Sunil Abraham was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">With reports of Israeli spyware being used to snoop on scores of WhatsApp subscribers, cyber security activists have appealed to the Supreme Court to take up the issue suo moto and order an inquiry. Kiran Chandra, a leader of the Free Software Movement of India, has said that the Government should rein in WhatsApp and mandate it to submit the source code, stating that the privacy of individuals is at stake.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Though reports of a breach of the WhatsApp network hit the headlines in the US six months ago, it is only in the last few days that the impact in India has become a burning issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We, for long, have been arguing that the privacy of individuals on the Internet is at risk. The Government should have enough safeguards to ensure their safety,” said Chandra.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, has called for a dedicated law to ensure Parliamentary supervision for all Government interception and legal hacking programmes. "The data protection law which is being contemplated by the current administration will not address the surveillance policy question in totality," he pointed out.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"It is a truly worrying development that members of civil society are being targeted using sophisticated surveillance technologies without proper legal basis and without any oversight," he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cyber security and privacy experts took to social media to express concern about the vulnerabilities that expose people to potential risks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Srinivas Kodali, a privacy activist, said the use of Israeli firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to monitor human rights defenders and academics is a clear violation of their fundamental rights. “The Supreme Court judgement on right to privacy has been very loud and clear that Indians’ fundamental rights can’t be exempted under national security without defining it,” he said, responding to a query on the breach of WhatsApp subscribers’ privacy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The operations of national security agencies are completely hidden and are not subjected to any legislative or judicial oversight. This cannot continue as they misuse the powers bestowed on themselves without any law on surveillance from Parliament,” he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Freedom Foundation has expressed concerns about the breaches. It wanted the Government to explain on how this spyware was used in India to hack citizens.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The Government must issue an official public statement providing complete information. It must also clarify which law empowers it to install such spyware,” it said in a statement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The US-based social media platform has started sending messages to subscribers whose accounts may have been compromised. It contains information about the breach and a link with a to-do list to stay safe.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The victims of the attack, which purportedly took place in April-May 2019, included human rights activists, journalists and Dalit activists.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At least two victims of the spyware attack confirmed receipt of alert messages from WhatsApp. “I received a call (from abroad) in the first week of October. But I ignored it as it was from an unknown number. I received a message from WhatsApp, alerting me about a probable intrusion,” a civil rights lawyer said.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>How it happened</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“In May, we stopped an attack where an advanced cyber actor exploited our video calling to install malware on user devices. There’s a possibility this phone number was impacted, and we want to make sure you know how to keep your mobile phone secure,” the message received by the victim said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">WhatsApp, a Facebook arm, sent these special messages to about 1,400 users who may have been impacted by the spyware attack. It is working with The Citizen Lab, a research group with the University of Toronto’s Munk School, to assess the impact of the attack on civil society.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a statement, WhatsApp said: “We provide end-to-end encryption for all messages and calls by default. (But) This attack was developed to access messages after they were decrypted on an infected device, abusing in-app vulnerabilities and the operating systems that power our mobile phones.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">WhatsApp moved a US court against the Israeli company NSO Group, and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies, alleging that they violated both US and California laws and WhatsApp’s Terms of Service, which prohibited such intrusions.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-businessline-november-1-2019-kv-kurmanath-activists-demand-judicial-probe-into-whatsapp-snooping'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-businessline-november-1-2019-kv-kurmanath-activists-demand-judicial-probe-into-whatsapp-snooping</a>
</p>
No publisherKV KurmanathInternet Governance2019-11-15T00:53:02ZNews ItemCyber law experts asks why CERT-In removed advisory warning about WhatsApp vulnerability
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/et-tech-megha-mandavia-november-4-2019-cyber-law-experts-asks-why-cert-in-removed-advisory-warning-about-whatsapp-vulnerability
<b>On the missing web page note, CERT-In had provided a detailed explanation of the vulnerability, which could be exploited by an attacker by making a decoy voice call to a target.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Megha Mandavia was <a class="external-link" href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/cyber-law-experts-asks-why-cert-in-removed-advisory-warning-about-whatsapp-vulnerability/71881880">published in ET Tech.com</a> on November 4, 2019. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cyber law experts have asked the <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/government">government</a> to explain why the Indian computer emergency response team (<a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/cert-in">CERT-In</a>) removed from its website two days ago an advisory it had put out in May warning users of a vulnerability that could be used to exploit <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/whatsapp">WhatsApp</a> on their smartphones.<br /><br />“This is merely further evidence that the explanation is to be provided by GoI (Government of India) instead of blame shifting and politicizing the issue,” said Mishi Choudhary, the legal director of the New York-based Software Freedom Law Center. “India is a surveillance state with no judicial oversight.”<br /><br />On the missing web page note, CERT-In had provided a detailed explanation of the vulnerability, which could be exploited by an attacker by making a decoy voice call to a target.<br /><br />It had warned WhatsApp users that the vulnerability could allow an attacker to access information on the system, such as logs, messages and photos, and could further compromise it. CERT-In rated the severity “high” and asked users to upgrade to the latest version of the app.<br /><br />It also listed links to hackernews and cyber security firm Check Point Software that pointed to the alleged involvement of Israeli cyber software firm NSO Group in the hacking of WhatsApp messenger.<br /><br />CERT-In Director-General Sanjay Bahl did not respond to ET’s mails or calls seeking clarity on why the advisory was pulled from its website.<br /><br />The Times of India reported first the development.<br /><br />The government had blamed WhatsApp for not informing it about the attack and asked the Facebook-owned company to respond by November 4.<br /><br />In response, WhatsApp sources pointed out that it had informed CERT-in in May about the vulnerability and updated in September that 121 Indian nationals were targeted using the exploit, ET reported on Sunday.<br /><br />“We should not read too much into it. It could just be bad website management. The vulnerability was public knowledge. It was reported by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) organization in May,” said Pranesh Prakash, fellow at the Centre of <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet">Internet</a> and Society, a non-profit organisation.<br /><br />The government has also questioned the timing of the disclosure, as it comes amid a request by it to the Supreme Court seeking three months to frame rules to curb misuse of social media in the country.<br /><br />The government has categorically told WhatsApp that it wants the platform to bring in a mechanism that would enable tracing of the origin of messages, a demand that the instant messaging platform has resisted citing privacy concerns.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/et-tech-megha-mandavia-november-4-2019-cyber-law-experts-asks-why-cert-in-removed-advisory-warning-about-whatsapp-vulnerability'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/et-tech-megha-mandavia-november-4-2019-cyber-law-experts-asks-why-cert-in-removed-advisory-warning-about-whatsapp-vulnerability</a>
</p>
No publisherMegha MandaviaInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-11-15T00:48:00ZNews ItemIndia facial recognition: How effective will it be?
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/al-jazeera-video-november-8-2019-india-facial-recognition
<b>India is trying to build what could be the world's largest facial recognition system.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">New Delhi says the system could help fight crime and find missing children.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The technology has already been launched at a few Indian airports.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Police in New Delhi says it has identified nearly 3,000 missing children during a trial period last year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But not everyone is convinced.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Internet freedom advocates say there is little information about where and what the system will be used for and how data will be stored.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The use of facial recognition software is already common in places like China.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But there are questions about how effective it is, with one British study revealing that the technology could be highly inaccurate.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash joins Al Jazeera from Bengaluru in India. He is a fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society but is talking to us in a personal capacity</p>
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<h3>Video</h3>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YAsMf9qy3cc" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/al-jazeera-video-november-8-2019-india-facial-recognition'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/al-jazeera-video-november-8-2019-india-facial-recognition</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-11-15T00:42:35ZNews ItemShould online political advertising be regulated?
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-pj-george-november-8-2019-should-online-political-advertising-be-regulated
<b>Micro-targeting could have potentially damaging results in the context of political advertising.</b>
<p>The article by P.J. George was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/should-online-political-advertising-be-regulated/article29912107.ece">published in the Hindu</a> on November 8, 2019. Pranesh Prakash was interviewed.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><em>On October 31, Twitter announced that it will no longer carry political advertisements as the power of Internet advertising “brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes”. On the other hand, Facebook has said it will not fact-check political advertisements as it does not want to stifle free speech. In a conversation moderated by P.J. George, Pranesh Prakash (board member, The Centre for Internet and Society) and Kiran Chandra (General Secretary, Free Software Movement of India) discuss how platforms and constitutional authorities can deal with the challenges posed by online political advertising to democracies. </em>Edited excerpts:</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">We have always had political advertising. What is it that makes online political advertisements different or maybe even problematic?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash: There are two things that make online political advertising different. One is targeting. Online advertising allows, especially on social networks, for a kind of targeting that wasn’t possible at the same level before. Earlier, if you wanted to target a particular segment of people for your political messaging, you could find out what kind of magazines they subscribe to and put fliers in those magazines. But you couldn’t engage in personalised targeting based on multiple attributes that is possible through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The second is the invisibility of this kind of advertising. If there’s a billboard in the real world, everyone gets to see it. However, if there’s targeted advertising on a social media platform, not everyone gets to know of it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kiran Chandra: App-based organisations have designed advertisement models to specifically allow targeting. Facebook, for instance, allowed you to choose a person from a particular caste and also from a particular class in the same caste. If somebody wants to look at an advertisement for an Audi, they can go to one class of newspapers or look at billboards in some localities; the very existence of the product is not opaque to society. But targeted advertising makes it possible for two people connected to the Internet from the same source, using the same equipment, studying in the same school or college, working in the same workplace, and living in the same habitat to get two different advertisements. And micro-targeting has got potentially damaging results in the context of political advertising, particularly for elections. These platforms make it possible to go from manufacturing consent to manipulating consent. A person is continuously fed with information to vote for a particular party.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Twitter said it will no longer carry political advertisements, considering the repercussions seen in the U.S. in the past elections. On the contrary, Facebook says political advertisements are necessary and that people should see if their politicians are lying. How culpable is a platform in the case of a problematic online political advertisement?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">KC: Platforms, particularly Facebook, have been washing their hands of the issue saying they are only intermediaries providing space; that the content is being generated by the people to be consumed by the people, and they have no role to play. But this is false. If you look at the complete business model of Facebook, Google, or any of the platforms, they clearly provide micro-targeting, or allow people to be manipulated for a particular purpose. So, these platforms can’t just wash their hands of the issue. In the Maharashtra election, you saw a lot of advertisements coming out which are untraceable. How can this happen without the platform itself allowing for such a possibility? The Election Commission (EC) needs to step in on all these issues. These corporations need to be very transparent in the context of elections. They need to bring out all the ways in which advertisements are displayed and also the money associated with it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When somebody publishes it [an ad] on a Facebook wall, it is as good as publishing it in a newspaper. So, all the legislation that apply now for reasonable restrictions and freedom of speech and the freedom of press also apply to these platforms. These platforms are culpable when the very intent of their business model allows such subversion of the democratic process. They need to be brought in line to ensure that Indian democracy is safe.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">PP: I completely disagree with Kiran on a number of points. For instance, those who are running a platform shouldn’t automatically be liable for what people are seeing on those platforms. The people who are actually saying things should be liable, not necessarily those who are carrying it without knowing what they’re carrying most of the time. Kiran also mentioned manipulation. The job of all advertising is to manipulate. The job of newspapers is to manipulate public opinion. And there’s always money associated with this. Newspapers carry advertisements as well. You don’t necessarily know who has paid for each ad in the newspaper. What online platforms are able to provide is actually greater transparency in this regard, at least based on what Facebook is attempting to do with its ad library. Calling this manipulation doesn’t quite work. Because then you have to specify why certain categories of things you think of as manipulating, while other categories you think of as influencing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, as far as I know, Facebook does not ask for your caste. Nor does it actually allow advertisers to use caste as a category for advertising. To address the larger question of whether to carry political advertisements or not, I don’t think there are simple answers. For instance, in different jurisdictions there are different rules as to whether different kinds of media are allowed to carry political advertisements or not. In the U.S., all broadcasters are required by law not to censor on the basis of the content of political advertising. Which means that broadcasters in the U.S. cannot say to a candidate, ‘this advertisement that you’ve sent to us contains a lie and we’re not going to associate ourselves with the lie and we’re not going to carry it’. Now, when a platform like Facebook says that it will voluntarily adopt a similar standard as applies to broadcast organisations by law, all hell breaks loose. And again, there might be good reasons for it. But to say that political advertising should not contain lies, and hence should be censored, is not a viable opinion across the board.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">KC: I would like to clarify one thing here. There is a clear distinction between Facebook asking your caste and Facebook allowing you to micro-target people based on their caste and class. In 2016, I created an advertisement with a tag called Brahmin bags and it allowed inclusion and exclusion based on caste and economic status. And now, after this had been made an issue for the last three years, Facebook says that advertisers can select topics that are specific to a particular caste. For instance, Dalit topics, Iyengar topics, etc. So Facebook, in its design, allows such kind of sensitivities to be used for micro-targeting. And one should not confuse general advertising with political advertising. If the advertisement is just about manipulating for buying a particular product, that has something to do with the business houses; even if one agrees with it or not. But when you speak about political advertising, when people come to participate and engage in a democratic process, the EC and The Representation of the People Act (RPA) mandate that people should be allowed to take a very clear stand, to look at what has happened in the last five years, and decide how to vote, freely and fairly. That is why the RPA clearly lists a certain set of things for free and fair elections, where even the use of money and manipulation should not be allowed to happen. Yes, the U.S. has a different context. American democracy is different from Indian democracy. We have got our own statute. This methodology in which these platforms have got their business models and are engaging deeply in subverting the Indian democratic process is a serious cause of concern. The EC should come up with new methodologies, if the existing ones are not sufficient.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Can you elaborate on how the EC can play a role in this?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">KC: We brought these issues to the notice of the EC prior to the 2019 general election. The EC said it does not have enough manpower to deal with this situation for now. The EC does not have power over the police or the administration; but once the elections are on, it has the capability to take in different departments and ensure that such subversion of the democratic process does not happen. A fundamental problem with the EC’s method is that it said it was in discussion with the digital platforms to make more people vote in the election. And that itself is problematic. How is it going to be done? The EC should make public the way in which this advertising is being conducted, the money associated with it, and the people who are being reached with it. For instance, if we look at TV channels for ads during primetime, there is a mechanism, like TRP ratings, which allows them to understand and evaluate the target sections. If you look at the Maharashtra election, the advertiser itself is not known. Have people been sent communal messages? Have people been targeted based on caste, which can disqualify the contestant? The EC should reach out to the Government of India and look at the departments that are capable of handling this. If they don’t exist, it should start creating infrastructure that will be able to look into all these aspects. Also, concrete guidelines should be given to these digital platforms. And whatever comes in contradiction, or comes in the way of implementing the RPA, the EC should stop the platforms from doing it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">PP: For me, it’s not clear to what extent I would draw a distinction between advertising and other things which the EC has not been able to curtail, such as paid news and political ownership of media, which allow for very skewed viewpoints to be expressed. But insofar as what can be done about online platforms — and again, only online platforms which deal in advertising — the biggest source of online political messaging in India is WhatsApp. So, excluding the elephant in the room from this discussion, what the EC could do is bring the largest platforms together to get transparency commitments from them. Then this information needs to be made publicly available, so that the invisibility which happens with targeting gets countered. The second thing... Given that elections are geographical in nature in India, if you want to engage in advertising, you have to do it on the basis of geography, not on the basis of specific kinds of attributes of a person. And let’s also be aware that most of these attributes or guesses about people that these platforms are making are based on what people post on social media platforms, what they click. So, the one thing that can be done on a global level is transparency and restrictions on various targeting but anything else such as limitations on, say, lying in political advertising, I don't think that can or should be sold on a global level. It’s dependent far too much on each country and their models and how they interpret freedom of expression.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-pj-george-november-8-2019-should-online-political-advertising-be-regulated'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-pj-george-november-8-2019-should-online-political-advertising-be-regulated</a>
</p>
No publisherP.J. GeorgeFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet Governance2019-11-13T15:12:46ZNews ItemCultivating India’s Cyber Defense Strategy
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cultivating-india2019s-cyber-defense-strategy
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cultivating-india2019s-cyber-defense-strategy'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cultivating-india2019s-cyber-defense-strategy</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminCyber SecurityInternet Governance2019-11-13T14:39:19ZFileOpen Workshop on 'Digital Empire(s): Perspectives from Asia and Africa
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/open-workshop-on-digital-empire-s-perspectives-from-asia-and-africa
<b>Monish will be a part of a collaborative network which is organising an open workshop on 'Digital Empire(s): Perspectives from Asia and Africa', on December 4, 2019 at Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) Delhi.</b>
<p>Click to view the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/digital-empires.pdf">agenda</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/open-workshop-on-digital-empire-s-perspectives-from-asia-and-africa'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/open-workshop-on-digital-empire-s-perspectives-from-asia-and-africa</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet GovernanceDigitisation2019-11-13T14:36:03ZNews ItemAdvancing Cyberstability Final Report
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/advancing-cyberstability-final-report
<b>Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) was acknowledged in the final report of the Global Commission on Stability of Cyberspace</b>
<p>CIS had engaged with the Commission throughout the process. An issue brief authored by Elonnai Hickok and Arindrajit Basu was published by them last year. A submission made by Gurshabad Grover, Elonnai Hickok, Karan Saini and Arindrajit Basu was also acknowledged. See the <a class="external-link" href="https://cyberstability.org/report/#acknowledgements">list of acknowledgements here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/advancing-cyberstability-final-report'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/advancing-cyberstability-final-report</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet Governance2019-11-13T14:25:59ZNews ItemIndia’s Role in Global Cyber Policy Formulation
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/lawfare-arindrajit-basu-november-7-2019-indias-role-in-global-cyber-policy-formulation
<b>The past year has seen vigorous activity on the domestic cyber policy front in India. On key issues—including intermediary liability, data localization and e-commerce—the government has rolled out a patchwork of regulatory policies, resulting in battle lines being drawn by governments, industry and civil society actors both in India and across the globe.</b>
<p>The article by Arindrajit Basu was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/indias-role-global-cyber-policy-formulation">published in Lawfare</a> on November 7, 2019. The article was reviewed and edited by Elonnai Hickok and Justin Sherman.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The onslaught of recent developments demonstrates how India can shape cyber policy debates. Among emerging economies, India is uniquely positioned to exercise leverage over multinational tech companies due to its sheer population size, combined with a rapid surge in users coming online and the country’s large gross domestic product. India occupies a key seat at the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/06/g20-data/592606/">data governance table</a> alongside other players like the EU, China, Russia and the United States — a position the country should use to promote its interests and those of other similarly placed emerging economies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For many years, the Indian population has served as an economic resource for foreign, largely U.S.-based tech giants. Now, however, India is moving toward a regulatory strategy that reduces the autonomy of these companies in order to pivot away from a system that recently has been termed “<a href="https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/colonialism-20-truly">data colonialism</a>”—in which Western technologies use data-driven revenue bolstered by information extracted from consumers in the Global South to consolidate their global market power. The policy thinking underpinning India’s new grand vision still has some gaps, however.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Data Localization</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Starting with a circular from the Reserve Bank of India in April 2018, the Indian government has <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india/status/1143096429298085889">introduced a range of policy instruments</a> mandating “<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf">data localization</a>”—that is, requiring that certain kinds of data must be stored in servers located physically within India. A snapshot of these policies is summarized in the table below.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/IndianLaws.jpg" alt="Indian Laws" class="image-inline" title="Indian Laws" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: -webkit-center; ">(</span><em>Source </em><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf" style="text-align: -webkit-center; "><em>here</em></a><em>. Design credit: Saumyaa Naidu</em><span style="text-align: -webkit-center; ">)</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: -webkit-center; ">While there are <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf">a number of</a> reasons for this maneuver, two in particular are in line with India’s broader vision of data sovereignty—broadly defined as the sovereign right of nations to govern data within their territory and/or jurisdiction in order to support their national interest for the welfare of their citizens. First, there is an incentive to keep data within India’s jurisdiction because of the cumbersome process through which Indian law enforcement agencies must go during criminal investigations in order to access data stored in the U.S. Second, data localization undercuts the <a href="https://theprint.in/tech/digital-colonialism-why-countries-like-india-want-to-take-control-of-data-from-big-tech/298217/">extractive economic models</a> used by U.S. companies operating in India by which the data generated by Indian citizens is collected in India, stored in data centers located largely in the U.S., and processed and analyzed to derive commercially valuable insights.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Both foreign players and smaller Indian private-sector actors were against this move. A <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf">study</a> on the issue that I co-authored earlier this year with Elonnai Hickok and Aditya Chawla found that one of the reasons for this resistance involved the high costs of setting up the data centers that are needed to comply with the requirement. President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-g20-leaders-special-event-digital-economy-osaka-japan/">echoed</a> this sentiment when he explicitly opposed data localization during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G-20 in June 2019.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the same time, large Indian players such as Reliance and Paytm and Chinese companies like AliBaba and Xilink were in favor of localization—possibly because these companies could absorb the costs of setting up storage facilities while benefiting from the fixed costs imposed on foreign competition. In fact, some companies, such as AliBaba, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/alibaba-cloud-opens-second-data-centre-in-india/articleshow/65995570.cms">have already set up storage facilities in India.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As my co-authors and I noted, data localization comes with various risks, both diplomatically and politically. So far, the issue has caused friction in U.S.-India trade relations. For example, before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to New Delhi in June, the Trump administration <a href="https://thewire.in/diplomacy/us-india-h1b-visa-data-localisation">reportedly</a> contemplated limiting H-1B visas for any country that implements a localization requirement. Further, on his trips to New Delhi, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has <a href="https://www.medianama.com/2019/05/223-us-trade-secretary-wilbur-ross-highlights-data-localisation-high-tariffs-on-electronics-telecom-products-in-india-as-trade-issues/">regularly argued</a> that data localization restrictions are a barrier to U.S. companies and stressed the need to eliminate such barriers. Further, data localization poses several <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/where-your-data-really-technical-case-against-data-localization">technical challenges</a> as well as security risks. Mirroring data across multiple locations, as India’s <a href="https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,2018.pdf">Draft Personal Data Protection Bill</a> mandates, increases the number of physical data centers that need to be protected and thereby the number of vulnerable points that malicious actors can attack.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, the Indian media have reported <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/policymakers-a-divided-lot-on-personal-data-bill-provisions/articleshow/70404637.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst">disagreements</a> between policymakers over data localization, along with speculation that the data storage requirement in the Draft Personal Data Protection Bill could be limited only to critical data—a term not defined in the bill itself—or be left to sectoral regulators, officials from individual government departments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our paper <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf">recommended a dual approach</a>. In our view, data localization policy should include mandatory localization for critical sectors such as defense or payments data, while also adopting “conditional” localization for all other data. Under conditional localization, data should only be transferred to countries that (a) agree to share the personal data of Indian citizens with law enforcement authorities based on Indian criminal procedure laws (examples of such a mechanism may be an executive data-sharing agreement under the <a href="https://epic.org/privacy/cloud-act/">CLOUD Act</a>) and (b) have equivalent privacy and security safeguards. This approach would be in line with India’s overarching vision of data sovereignty and the goal of standing up to the hegemony of big tech and of U.S. internet regulations, while avoiding undue collateral damage to India’s global alliances.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Intermediary Liability</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In line with the goal of ensuring that big tech is answerable to the rule of law, the Indian government has also sought to regulate the adverse social impacts of some speech hosted by platforms. Rule 3(9) of the <a href="https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Draft_Intermediary_Amendment_24122018.pdf">Draft of the Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018,</a> released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in December 2019, takes up the interventionist mission of laws like the <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/germanys-bold-gambit-prevent-online-hate-crimes-and-fake-news-takes-effect">NetzDg</a> in Germany. The regulation would mandate that platforms use “automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls, for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.” These regulations have prompted concerns from both the private sector and civil society groups that claim the proposal fails to address <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/Intermediary%20Liability%20Rules%202018.pdf">constitutional concerns</a> about algorithmic discrimination, excessive censorship and inappropriate delegation of legislative powers under Indian law. Further, some observers object that the guidelines adopt a “one-size-fits-all” approach to classifying intermediaries that does not differentiate between platforms that thrive on end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp and public platforms like Facebook.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In many ways, these guidelines—likely to be <a href="https://www.medianama.com/2019/10/223-intermediary-guidelines-to-be-notified-by-jan-15-2020-meity-tells-supreme-court/">notified</a><a href="https://www.medianama.com/2019/10/223-intermediary-guidelines-to-be-notified-by-jan-15-2020-meity-tells-supreme-court/"> (as an amendment to the Information Technology Act) as early as January 2020</a>—put the cart before the horse. Before devising regulatory models appropriate for India’s geographic scale and population, it is first necessary to conduct empirical research about the vectors through which misinformation spreads in India and how misinformation impacts different social, economic and linguistic communities, along with pilot programs for potential solutions to the misinformation problem. And it is imperative that these measures be brought in line with constitutional requirements.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Community Data and “Data as a Public Good”</h3>
<p>Another important question involves the precise meaning of “data” itself—an issue on which various policy documents have failed to deliver a consistent stance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first conceptualization of “community data” appears in both the <a href="https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Data_Protection_Committee_Report.pdf">Srikrishna Committee Report</a> that accompanied the <a href="https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,2018.pdf">Draft Personal Data Protection Bill</a> in 2018 and the draft e-commerce policy. However, neither policy provides clarity on the concept of data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When defining community data, the Srikrishna Report endorses a collective protection of privacy as protecting an identifiable community that has contributed to community data. According to the Srikrishna Report, receiving collective protection requires the fulfillment of three key aspects. First, the data belong to an identifiable community. Second, the individuals in the community consent to being a part of the community. And third, the community as a whole consents to its data being treated as community data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="https://dipp.gov.in/sites/default/files/DraftNational_e-commerce_Policy_23February2019.pdf">draft e-commerce policy</a> reconceptualizes the notion of community data as “societal commons” or a “national resource,” where the undefined ‘community” has rights to access data but the government has overriding control to utilize the data for welfare purposes. Unlike the Srikrishna Report, the draft e-commerce policy does not outline the key aspects of community data. This approach fails to demarcate a clear line between personal and nonpersonal data or to specify any practical guidelines or restrictions on how the government can use community data. For this reason, implementation of this policy could pose a threat to the right to privacy that the Indian Supreme Court recognized as a <a href="https://thewire.in/law/supreme-court-aadhaar-right-to-privacy">fundamental right</a> in 2017.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second idea is that of “data as a public good.” This is described in Chapter 4 of the <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/doc/vol1chapter/echap04_vol1.pdf">2019 Economic Survey Report</a>—a document published by the Ministry of Finance along with the Annual Financial Budget. The report explicitly states that any data governance framework needs to be deferential to privacy norms and the soon-to-be-enacted privacy law. The report further states that “personal data” of an individual in the custody of a government is a “public good” once the datasets are anonymized.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, the report’s recommendation of setting up a government database that links several individual databases together leads to the <a href="https://thewire.in/government/india-vision-data-republic-dangers-privacy">“triangulation” problem</a>, in which individuals can be identified by matching different datasets together. The report further suggests that the same data can be sold to private firms (though it is unclear whether this includes foreign or domestic firms). This directly contradicts the characterization of a “public good”—which, by definition, must be <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-good-economics">n</a><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-good-economics">onexcludable and nonrivalrous</a>—and is also at odds with the government’s vision of reining in big tech. The government has set up an expert committee to look into the scope of nonpersonal data, and the results of the committee’s deliberations <a href="https://www.medianama.com/2019/09/223-meity-non-personal-data-committee/">are likely to</a> influence the shape that India’s data governance framework takes across multiple policy instruments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is obviously a need to reassess and reevaluate the range of governance efforts and gambits that have emerged in the past year. With domestic cyber policy formulation pivots reaching a crescendo, we must consider how domestic cyber policy efforts can influence India’s approach to global debates in this space.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">India’s Contribution to Global Cyber Policy Debates</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As the largest democracy in the world, India is undoubtedly a key <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/cybersecurity-initiative/reports/digital-deciders/">“digital decider”</a> in shaping the future of the internet. Multilateral cyber policy formulation efforts remain <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-potential-for-the-normative-regulation-of-cyberspace-implications-for-india">polarized</a>. The U.S. and its European allies continue to advocate for a free, rules-based conception of cyberspace with limited governmental interference. China and Russia, along with their Shanghai Cooperation Organisation allies, are pushing for a tightly regulated internet in which each state has the right to manage and define its “network frontiers” through domestic regulation free from external interference. To some degree, India is already influencing debate over the internet through its various domestic cyber policy movements. However, its participation in international debates has been lacking the vigor or coherence needed to clearly articulate India’s national interests and take up a global leadership role.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In shaping its contributions to global cyber policy formulation, India should focus its efforts on three key places: (a) internet governance forums that deliberate the governance of the technical architecture of the internet such as domain names, (b) cyber norms formulation processes that seek to establish norms to foster responsible behavior in cyberspace by states and nonstate actors in cyberspace, and (3) global debates on trade and cross-border data flows that seek to conceptualize the future of global digital trade relationships. As I discuss below, there are key divisions in Indian policy in each of these forums. To realize its grand vision in the digital sphere, India needs to do much more to make its presence felt.</p>
<p><em>Internet Governance Forums</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India’s stance on a variety of issues at internet governance forums has been inconsistent, switching repeatedly between <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/GCIG%20Volume%202%20WEB.pdf">multilateral and multistakeholder visions for internet governance.</a> A core reason for this uncertainty <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/indias-contribution-to-internet-governance-debates">is the participation of multiple Indian government</a> ministries, which often disagree with each other. At global internet governance forums, India has been represented either by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (now renamed to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technoloft or the Department of Telecommunications (under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) or by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As my colleagues have documented <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/indias-contribution-to-internet-governance-debates">in a detailed paper,</a> India has been vocal in global internet governance debates at forums including the International Telecommunications Union, the Internet Governance Forum and the U.N. General Assembly. However, the Indian stance on <a href="https://www.diplomacy.edu/IGFLanguage/multistakeholderism">multistakeholderism</a> has been complex, with the MEA advocating for a multilateral stance while the other departments switched between multistakeholderism and “nuanced multilateralism”—which calls for multistakeholder participation in policy formulation but multilateral implementation. The paper also argues that there has been a decline recently in the vigor of Indian participation at forums such as the 2018 meeting of the Working Group on Enhanced Co-operation (WGEC 2.0), due to key personnel changes. For <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/indias-contribution-to-internet-governance-debates">example</a>, B.N. Reddy, who was a skilled and experienced negotiator for the MEA in previous forums, was transferred to another position before WGEC 2.0, and the delegation that attended the meeting did not make its presence felt as strongly or skillfully.</p>
<p><em>Cyber Norms for Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With the exception of two broad and unoriginal statements at the <a href="https://unoda-web.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/India.pdf">70th</a> and <a href="https://undocs.org/A/71/172">71st</a> sessions of the U.N. General Assembly, India has yet to make public its position on the multilateral debate on the proliferation of norms for responsible state behavior in cyberspace. During the <a href="https://dig.watch/events/open-ended-working-group-oewg-first-substantive-session">substantive session</a> of the Open-Ended Working Group held in September, India largely reaffirmed points made by other states, rather than carving out a new or original approach. The silence and ambiguity is surprising, as India has been represented on four of the five Groups of Governmental Experts (GGEs) set up thus far and has also been inducted into the 2019-2021 GGE that is set to revamp the global cyber norms process. (Due to the GGE’s rotational membership policy, India was not a member of the fourth GGE that submitted its report in 2015.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, before becoming an evangelist of any particular norms, India has some homework to do domestically. It has yet to advance a clear, coherent and detailed public stance outlining its views on the application of international law to cyberspace. This public stance is necessary for two reasons. First, a well-reasoned statement that explains India’s stance on core security issues—such as the applicability of self-defense, countermeasures and international humanitarian law—would show India’s appetite for offensive and defensive strategies for external adversaries and allies alike. This would serve as the edifice of a potentially credible cyber deterrence strategy. Second, developing a public stance would help India to take advantage of the economic, demographic and political leverage that it holds and to assume a leadership role in discussions. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/cyber-and-international-law-in-the-21st-century">U.K.</a>, <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/frances-cyberdefense-strategic-review-and-international-law">France,</a> <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/germanys-position-international-law-cyberspace">Germany</a>, <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/64490/estonia-speaks-out-on-key-rules-for-cyberspace/">Estonia</a>, <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cuban-Expert-Declaration.pdf">Cuba</a> (backed by China and Russia) and the <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Brian-J.-Egan-International-Law-and-Stability-in-Cyberspace-Berkeley-Nov-2016.pdf">U.S.</a> have all made their positions publicly known with varying degrees of detail.</p>
<p><em>Data Transfers</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Unlike in other forums, Indian policy has been clearer in the cross-border data transfer debate. This is a foreign policy extension of India’s emphasis on localization and data sovereignty in domestic policy instruments. At the G-20 Summit in Osaka, India and the rest of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa) stressed the role that data play in economic development for emerging economies and reemphasized the need for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8YsZQ0F6k&feature=youtu.be">data sovereignty</a>. India did not sign the <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/g20/2019-06-29-g20_declaration-declaration_g20.aspx?lang=eng">Osaka Declaration on the Digital Economy</a> that kickstarted the “Osaka Track”—a process whereby the 78 signatories agreed to participate in global policy discussions on international rule-making for e-commerce at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This was a continuation of India’s sustained efforts opposing the e-commerce moratorium at the WTO.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The importance of cross-border data flows in spurring the global economy found its way into the <a href="https://g20.org/pdf/documents/en/FINAL_G20_Osaka_Leaders_Declaration.pdf">Final G-20 Leaders Declaration</a>—which India signed. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8YsZQ0F6k&feature=youtu.be">argued</a> that international rule-making on data transfers should not take place in plurilateral forums outside the WTO. Gokhale claimed that limiting the debate to the WTO would ensure that emerging economies have a say in the framing of the rules. The clarity expressed by the Indian delegation at the G-20 should be a model for more confident Indian leadership in this global cyber policy development space.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Looking Forward</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India is no newcomer to the idea of normative leadership. To overcome material shortcomings in the nation’s early years, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister, engineered a <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/h13WRfZP09BWA3Eg68TuVL/What-Narendra-Modi-has-Jawaharlal-Nehru-to-thank-for.html">normative pivot in world affairs</a> by championing the sovereignty of countries that had gained independence from colonial rule. In the years immediately after independence, the Indian foreign policy establishment sought to break the hegemony of the United States and the Soviet Union by advancing a foreign policy rooted in what came to be known as <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/india/2016-09-19/india-after-nonalignment">“nonalignment.”</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Making sound contributions to foreign policy in cyberspace requires a variety of experts—international lawyers, computer scientists, geopolitical strategists and human rights advocates. Indian civil society and academia are brimming with tech policy enthusiasts from a variety of backgrounds who could add in-depth substance to the government’s cyber vision. Such engagement has begun to some extent at the domestic level: Most government policies are now opened up to consultation with stakeholders Yet there is still room for greater transparency in this process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India's cyber vision is worth fighting for. The continued monetization of data dividends by foreign big tech at the expense of India’s socioeconomic development needs to be countered. This can be accomplished by predictable and coherent policymaking that balances economic growth and innovation with the fundamental rights and values enshrined in the Indian Constitution, including the right to equality, freedom of speech and expression, and the right to life. But inherent contradictions in the conceptualization of personal data, delays in tabling the Personal Data Protection Bill, and uncertain or rushed approaches in several other regulatory policies are all fettering the realization of this vision. On core geopolitical issues, there exists an opportunity to set the rule-shaping agenda to favor India’s sovereign interests. With global cyber policy formulation in a state of flux, India has the economic, demographic and intellectual leverage to have a substantial impact on the debate and recraft the narrative in favor of the rapidly emerging Global South.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/lawfare-arindrajit-basu-november-7-2019-indias-role-in-global-cyber-policy-formulation'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/lawfare-arindrajit-basu-november-7-2019-indias-role-in-global-cyber-policy-formulation</a>
</p>
No publisherbasuCyber SecurityInternet Governance2019-11-13T14:13:33ZBlog EntryUN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy Consultation on 'Privacy and Gender'
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/un-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-privacy-consultation-on-privacy-and-gender
<b>Ambika Tandon was a speaker at the Consultation on Privacy and Gender organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy held at New York University, New York on October 30 - 31, 2019. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The consultation was held to receive feedback on the report on privacy and gender towards which Pallavi, Aayush, Pranav and Ambika sent comments. Ambika was a speaker in t<span>he session 'The Body: as Data, as Identity, as </span><span>Money Maker', chaired by Eva Blum-Dumontet from Privacy </span><span>International, with co-panelists Anja Kovacs, Director, Internet </span><span>Democracy Project, and Joana Varon, Director, Coding Rights.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/un-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-privacy-consultation-on-privacy-and-gender'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/un-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-privacy-consultation-on-privacy-and-gender</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet GovernancePrivacy2019-11-02T06:39:25ZNews ItemOctober 2019 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2019-newsletter
<b>CIS newsletter for October 2019:</b>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights for October 2019</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Gurshabad Grover <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1">has been nominated</a> through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to be a member of the Advisory Group on Open Source Software for ISO/IEC JTC 1.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the Christchurch Call to Action in May 2018 to “bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism.” <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tanaya-rajwade-elonnai-hickok-and-raouf-kundil-peedikayil-october-31-2019-comments-to-christchurch-call">CIS sent its comments to the Call</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Over the past decade, a few private online intermediaries, by rapid innovation and integration, have turned into regulators of a substantial amount of online speech. Such concentrated power calls for a high level of responsibility on them to ensure that the rights of the users online, including their rights to free speech and privacy, are maintained. CIS has <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/torsha-sarkar-suhan-s-and-gurshabad-grover-october-30-2019-through-the-looking-glass">analyzed the companies' transparency reports</a> for government requests for user data and content removal.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Labour convened an interaction program of sorts at Vikas Soudha in Bangalore on 21st October, 2019 to hear the issues plaguing the emergent gig economy. Bharath Gururagavendran has <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/department-of-labour-interaction-program-online-business-platforms">thrown more light on this</a> in a blog post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-to-the-united-nations-human-rights-commission-report-on-gender-and-privacy">presented a response</a> to the ‘Gender issues arising in the digital era and their impacts on women, men and individuals of diverse sexual orientations gender identities, gender expressions and sex characteristics. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aayush-rathi-ambika-tandon-amruta-mahuli-october-25-2019-comments-to-code-on-social-security">made a submission</a> to the draft Code on Social Security, 2019 prepared by the Government of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">On October 17, 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, released his thematic report on digital technology, social protection and human rights. Understanding the impact of technology on the provision of social protection – and, by extent, its impact on people in vulnerable situations – <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-international-ambika-tandon-october-17-2019-mother-and-child-tracking-system-understanding-data-trail-indian-healthcare">has been part of the work CIS has been doing</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A case study titled <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-the-delivery-of-public-services-elonnai-hickok-pranav-bidare-arindrajit-basu-siddharth-october-16-2019-farming-the-future">Farming the Future: Deployment of Artificial Intelligence in the agricultural sector in India</a> was published as a chapter in the joint UNESCAP-Google publication titled Artificial Intelligence in Public Service Delivery. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In response to our call for contributions and reflections on ‘Decolonising the Internet’s Languages’ in August, we are delighted to announce that <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/stil-2020-selected-contributions">we received 50 submissions, in over 38 languages!</a> From all these extraordinary offerings, we have selected nine that we will invite and support the contributors to expand further.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/big-data-reproductive-health-india-mcts">a case study undertaken as part of the Big Data for Development</a> (BD4D) network, Ambika Tandon evaluates the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) as data-driven initiative in reproductive health at the national level in India.</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>CIS and the News</h3>
<p>The following articles and research papers were authored by CIS secretariat during the month:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/modern-war-institute-september-30-2019-arindrajit-basu-and-karan-saini-setting-international-norms-cyber-conflict-hard-doesnt-mean-stop-trying">Setting International Norms of Cyber Conflict is Hard, But that Doesn't Mean that We Should Stop Trying</a> (Arindrajit Basu and Karan Saini; Modern War Institute; September 30, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-domestic-work-india-announcement">Digital mediation of domestic and care work in India: Project Announcement</a> (Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi; Feminist Internet Research Network, APC; October 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/doing-standpoint-theory">Doing Standpoint Theory</a> (Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi; Gender IT; October 10, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/fountain-ink-october-12-2019-arindrajit-basu-we-need-a-better-ai-vision">We need a better AI vision</a> (Arindrajit Basu; Fountainink; October 12, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-the-delivery-of-public-services-elonnai-hickok-pranav-bidare-arindrajit-basu-siddharth-october-16-2019-farming-the-future">Farming the Future: Deployment of Artificial Intelligence in the agricultural sector in India</a> (Elonnai Hickok, Arindrajit Basu, Siddharth Sonkar and Pranav M B; UNESCAP-Google publication titled Artificial Intelligence in Public Service Delivery; October 16, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-international-ambika-tandon-october-17-2019-mother-and-child-tracking-system-understanding-data-trail-indian-healthcare">The Mother and Child Tracking System - understanding data trail in the Indian healthcare systems</a> (Ambika Tandon; Privacy International; October 17, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-october-20-2019-digital-native-in-your-face-artificial-intelligence-biometric-facial-recognition-smart-technologies">Facial recognition at airports promises convenience in exchange for surveillance</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; October 20, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/arindrajit-basu-orfonline-october-21-2019-politics-by-other-means-fostering-positive-contestation-and-charting-red-lines-through-global-governance-in-cyberspace">“Politics by other means”: Fostering positive contestation and charting ‘red lines’ through global governance in cyberspace</a> (Arindrajit Basu; Global Policy and ORF; October 21, 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><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/newsminute-october-1-2019-theja-ram-why-conviction-rate-for-cyber-crime-cases-in-karnataka-is-abysmally-low">Why conviction rate for cyber crime cases in Karnataka is abysmally low</a> (Theja Ram; News Minute; October 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-shreya-nandi-prathma-sharma-october-15-2019-will-fastag-raise-privacy-concerns">Will FASTag raise privacy concerns</a>? (Shreya Nandi and Prathma Sharma; Livemint; October 15, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/reuters-annie-banerji-october-17-2019-indias-hiv-positive-trans-people-find-new-strength-in-technology">India's HIV-positive trans people find 'new strength' in technology</a> (Annie Banerji; Reuters; October 17, 2019). Also mirrored in Jakarta Post and ETHealthworld.com.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-asmita-bakshi-october-18-2019-dystopia-vs-development">Dystopia vs development: The Kashmir paradox</a> (Asmita Bakshi; Livemint; October 19, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/news-central-october-21-2019-puja-bhattacharjee-trending-hate-against-muslims">Trending Hate Against Muslims: Is Twitter Complicit? </a>(Puja Bhattacharjee; News Central; October 21, 2019).</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 style="text-align: justify;">Under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation we are doing a project 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry </strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/analysis-on-the-strategies-of-mozilla-and-wiki-communities-on-gender-gap-aspects-1">Analysis on the strategies of Mozilla and Wiki communities on gender gap aspects</a> (Bhuvana Meenakshi; October 3, 2019).</li></ul>
<ul></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;"><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/designing-a-human-rights-impact-assessment-for-icann2019s-policy-development-processes">Designing a Human Rights Impact Assessment for ICANN’s Policy Development Processes</a> (Collin Kure, Akriti Bopanna and Austin Ruckstuhl; October 3, 2019).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Submissions / Analysis</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/torsha-sarkar-suhan-s-and-gurshabad-grover-october-30-2019-through-the-looking-glass">Through the looking glass: Analysing transparency reports</a> (Torsha Sarkar, Suhan S and Gurshabad Grover; October 30, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tanaya-rajwade-elonnai-hickok-and-raouf-kundil-peedikayil-october-31-2019-comments-to-christchurch-call">CIS’ Comments to the Christchurch Call </a>(Tanaya Rajwade, Elonnai Hickok, and Raouf Kundil Peedikayil; October 31, 2019).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/department-of-labour-interaction-program-online-business-platforms">Department of Labour Interaction Program: Online Business Platforms</a> (Bharath Gururagavendran; edited by Ambika Tandon; October 29, 2019). </li></ul>
<ul></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/roundtable-discussion-on-intermediary-liability">Roundtable Discussion on Intermediary Liability</a> (Organized by SFLC and the Dialogue; New Delhi; October 17, 2019). Tanaya Rajwade participated in a roundtable discussion on intermediary liability.</li></ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Gender</h3>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/due-diligence-project-fgd-by-un-women">Due Diligence Project FGD by UN Women</a> (Organized by UN; UN House, New Delhi; October 11, 2019). Radhika Radhakrishnan attended a focussed group discussion.</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>Submissions</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-to-the-united-nations-human-rights-commission-report-on-gender-and-privacy">Comments to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Report on Gender and Privacy</a> (Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon and Pallavi Bedi; October 24, 2019). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aayush-rathi-ambika-tandon-amruta-mahuli-october-25-2019-comments-to-code-on-social-security">Comments to the Code on Social Security, 2019</a> (Aayush Rathi , Amruta Mahuli and Ambika Tandon; October 27, 2019).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bsides-delhi-2019-security-conference">BSides Delhi 2019 Security Conference</a> (Organized by Bsides Delhi; New Delhi; October 11, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/participation-in-iso-iec-jtc-1-sc-27-meetings">ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 27 meetings</a> (Organized by ISO/IEC JTC; Paris; October 14 - 18, 2019). Gurshabad Grover participated in the meetings. </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/un-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-privacy-consultation-on-privacy-and-gender">UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy Consultation on 'Privacy and Gender'</a> (Organized by UN Special Rapporteur; New York University, New York; October 30 - 31, 2019).</li></ul>
<ul></ul>
<h3>Artificial Intelligence / Digital Technology</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>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ai-for-good-event-report-on-workshop-conducted-at-unbox-festival">AI for Good</a> (Shweta Mohandas and Saumyaa Naidu; edited by Elonnai Hickok; October 9, 2019). </li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/nipfp-seminar-on-exploring-policy-issues-in-the-digital-technology-arena">NIPFP Seminar on Exploring Policy Issues in the Digital Technology Arena</a> (Organized by Indian Institute of Advanced Study; Shimla; October 10 - 11, 2019). Anubha Sinha participated in this seminar as a discussant.</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ai-opera-ai-as-a-total-work-of-art">AI Opera- AI as a total work of art</a> (Organized by Goethe; Bangalore; October 11, 2019). Shweta Mohandas and Mira were panelists.</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panelist-at-launch-of-google-unescap-ai-report">Launch of Google-UNESCAP AI Report</a> (Organized by Google; United Nations Convention Centre; Bangkok; October 16, 2019). Arindrajit Basu was a speaker.</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/discussion-at-cyfy-on-technology-policy-and-national-security-building-21st-century-curricula-in-india2019s-law-schools">Discussion at CyFy on Technology, Policy and National Security: Building 21st Century Curricula in India’s Law Schools</a> (Organized by Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi and Observer Research Foundation; Villa Medici, Taja Mahal Hotel, Man Singh Road, New Delhi; October 20, 2019).</div>
</li></ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3><a style="text-align: justify;" class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers@Work</a></h3>
<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>Announcement</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/stil-2020-selected-contributions">State of the Internet's Languages 2020: Announcing selected contributions</a>! (P.P. Sneha; November 1, 2019).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Case Study</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/big-data-reproductive-health-india-mcts">Big Data and Reproductive Health in India: A Case Study of the Mother and Child Tracking System</a> (Ambika Tandon; October 17, 2019).</li></ul>
<p>Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/dtil-2019-from-conversations-to-actions">Decolonizing the Internet’s Languages 2019 - From Conversations to Actions</a> (Organized by Whose Knowledge; London; October 23 - 24, 2019). P.P. Sneha participated in this meeting.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/mobilizing-online-consensus-net-neutrality-and-the-india-subreddit-90f58a7429ed">Mobilizing Online Consensus: Net Neutrality and the India Subreddit</a> (Sujeet George; October 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/how-green-is-the-internet-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-8fccaf6fecca">How Green is the Internet? The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly</a> (Aishwarya Panicker; October 11, 2019).</li></ul>
<ul></ul>
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<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/october-2019-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2019-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet GovernanceAccess to Knowledge2019-12-06T04:53:41ZPage CIS’ Comments to the Christchurch Call
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tanaya-rajwade-elonnai-hickok-and-raouf-kundil-peedikayil-october-31-2019-comments-to-christchurch-call
<b>In the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the Christchurch Call to Action in May 2018 to “bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism.”</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Fifty one supporters, including India, and eight tech companies have jointly agreed to a set of non-binding commitments and ongoing collaboration to eliminate violent and extremist content online. Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and Amazon are all among the online service provider signatories that released a joint statement welcoming the call and committing to a nine-point action plan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Call has been hailed by many as a step in the right direction, as it represents the first collaboration between governments and the private sector companies to combat the problem of extremist content online at this scale. However, the vagueness of the commitments outlined in the Call and some of the proposed mechanisms have raised concerns about the potential abuse of human rights by both governments and tech companies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This response is divided into two parts - Part One examines the call through the lens of human rights, and Part Two thinks through the ways in which India can adhere to the commitments in the Call, and compares the current legal framework in India with the commitments outlined in the Call.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to read the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cis2019-comments-to-the-christchurch-call">comments here</a>. The comments were prepared by Tanaya Rajwade, Elonnai Hickok, and Raouf Kundil Peedikayil and edited by Gurshabad Grover and Amber Sinha.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tanaya-rajwade-elonnai-hickok-and-raouf-kundil-peedikayil-october-31-2019-comments-to-christchurch-call'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tanaya-rajwade-elonnai-hickok-and-raouf-kundil-peedikayil-october-31-2019-comments-to-christchurch-call</a>
</p>
No publisherTanaya Rajwade, Elonnai Hickok, and Raouf Kundil PeedikayilFreedom of Speech and ExpressionSocial MediaInternet Governance2019-11-04T14:13:13ZBlog Entry