Blogposts

internet shutdowns

Statement on Digital Censorship in Punjab

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) is alarmed by the illegal censorship continuing in the State of Punjab.
28 March, 2023
2 min read
Tanmay SinghTanmay Singh
TRAI

Climb off the mandatory activation TRAIn

In this post, we analyse the 40 comments submitted in response to TRAI's consultation paper titled ‘Consultation Paper on Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Networks’, highlighting privacy concerns, especially in the absence of a data protection law.
28 March, 2023
6 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre
IT Rules, 2021

A Silver Lining? We wrote to the Rajya Sabha Committee ahead of its consideration of the IT Rules, 2021

The Rajya Sabha Committee on Subordinate Legislation is meeting on March 27, 2023, to consider the IT Rules, 2021 and its subsequent amendments. We wrote to them expressing our gratitude for their consideration of the Rules, while citing our concerns as well as the impact on online free speech.
27 March, 2023
5 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre
e-surveillance

Delhi HC issues notice on writ petition seeking extent of e-surveillance carried out by MHA under S. 69 of IT Act

Since 2018, we sought data on e-surveillance from MHA,which was denied for national security reasons. On appeal, it was held that data is periodically destroyed and subsequently the CIC held that information wasn't maintained at all. Delhi HC issued notice on our petition challenging the CIC order.
22 March, 2023
3 min read
Gayatri MalhotraGayatri Malhotra
RTI

Digital Transparency: A Right to Information Report for February, 2023

For the month of February 2022, IFF has filed 13 Right to Information (“RTI”) applications and 01 First Appeal. We received 5 responses including 1 from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and 4 from the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
17 March, 2023
4 min read
Gayatri MalhotraGayatri Malhotra
RTI

CIC directs MIB to provide the list of news publishers who have submitted their details under the IT Rules, 2021.

tl;dr IFF filed an RTI application with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) to obtain information on notices sent to publishers of news media under Rule 18 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). While the MIB stated that 2100 publishers have provided their details under the IT Rules, it refused to provide any other information under the RTI application, such as the number of notices sent,
16 March, 2023
4 min read
Gayatri MalhotraGayatri Malhotra
UNESCO

Our comments on Draft 2.0 of the UNESCO Guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms

We submitted our comments on draft 2.0 of the UNESCO Guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms (“Guidelines”) on March 08, 2023. Having participated in the consultation for draft 1.1 of the Guidelines, we built upon our existing comments and inserted additional analysis.
13 March, 2023
4 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre
ONDC

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC): An Explainer

‘Open Network for Digital Commerce’ (ONDC) is a government backed, network-centric, technology infrastructure. In this explainer we expand on what ONDC is, how it works, what the stated promises and potential challenges are, especially regarding ONDC's capability to address market issues.
10 March, 2023
9 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre
PrivacyofThePeople

#PrivacyofthePeople: The harms of biometric attendance apps

Read our analysis of the harms of biometric attendance apps and whether the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 will resolves these issues.
07 March, 2023
5 min read
Anushka JainAnushka Jain
BBCDocumentary

Censorship, Surveys, and Seizures: Developments around the BBC Documentary

The MIB banned re-sharing & uploading of links of the BBC Documentary using emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. The Income Tax Department carried out 3 day long survey operations at the BBC India offices in Delhi & Mumbai. We elaborate on our concerns with these actions in this post.
03 March, 2023
7 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre

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