Blogposts

Many mysteries of 'Digital India Bill'

This post is dedicated towards throwing some light on the much talked, heard, and discussed about ‘Digital India Bill’ (DIB), which strangely hasn’t even seen the light of the day yet.
20 February, 2023
9 min read

Digital Transparency: A Right to Information Report for January 2023

For the month of January 2022, IFF has filed 7 Right to Information (“RTI”) applications and 02 First Appeals. We received 5 responses including 1 from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and 4 from the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
17 February, 2023
3 min read

Read our public brief on the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022

Our brief summarises the issues with the draft and tries to provide better insight into how they may be resolved.
16 February, 2023
6 min read

Planning to use Digiyatra? Read this first!

Read our explainer on the DigiYatra Scheme's Privacy Policy.
14 February, 2023
7 min read

The Supreme Court refuses Special Leave Petition challenging the unconstitutional retention of mobile data of journalists

In December 2022, P. Vaishnavi, a freelance journalist, approached the Supreme Court challenging the order of the High Court of Madras that directed the trial court to keep a copy of all necessary content and data from her mobile phone, without providing any safeguards.
11 February, 2023
3 min read

MeitY’s merry go round: Statement on blocking and unblocking(?) of apps by MeitY

MeitY has reportedly issued orders to block over 230 applications/ platforms, after receiving instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs. MeitY hasn't yet furnished an official reasoning and justification for it. Read our full statement here.
10 February, 2023
6 min read

Our comments on the UNESCO guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms

UNESCO released the 1st draft of the “Guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms: a multistakeholder approach” with the aim of supporting freedom of expression and the availability of accurate and reliable information in the public sphere. We submitted our comments on January 20, 2023.
08 February, 2023
5 min read

We fact check the PIB fact checking amendments

Our response to the proposed amendment in relation to PIB's fact checking powers highlights the concerns pertaining, but not limited to executive overreach, ambiguity in definitions, violation of the Supreme Court’s Shreya Singhal judgement and barriers in the consultation process.
06 February, 2023
8 min read

Previously under-utilised budgets make us wary of the increased allocation in the 2023-2024 Budget

This blog post includes the analyse of the 2023-24 Budget as well as its comparison with the 2022-2023 budget and revised estimates. While Increased allocations in the 2023-24 Budget is a positive sign, there are some disappointing lows as well.
03 February, 2023
11 min read

Supreme Court directs WhatsApp to allow users to continue using WhatsApp without accepting its 2021 Privacy Policy

WhatsApp’s 2016 and 2021 privacy policy have been the subject of a long standing court challenge before the Delhi High Court. Today, the petition has been heard after 4 months.
01 February, 2023
5 min read

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