Posts by Anja Kovacs

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  • Internet Democracy Project joins global coalition that urges India to withdraw proposed amendments to Intermediary Guidelines

    The Internet Democracy Project has joined a global coalition of civil society and technology experts that sent a joint letter to the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 15 March, asking the Government of India to withdraw the draft amendments proposed to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules. The coalition warns that the government’s proposed amendments on intermediary liability will harm digital security and human rights, and calls on the government to withdraw the proposed amendments and start a fresh consultation process. A press release can be found here. The full text of the letter can be found below.   More

  • Draft amendments to Intermediary Guidelines Rules raise serious concern for freedom of expression and privacy

    At the end of December 2018, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of the Government of India invited stakeholders to provide their comments and suggestions on the Draft Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018 by 31 January 2019. The Draft Rules seek to amend existing guidelines that lay out the conditions online intermediaries need to fulfil in order to qualify for safe-harbour protection. Unfortunately, many of the proposed amendments pose severe risks for freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet in India. The Internet Democracy Project has joined a coalition of organisations and concerned citizens in India in submitting a joint letter to MeitY that draws attention to these concerns. You can find the full text of the letter below.   More

  • Imagine a Feminist Internet

    Call for papers: Imagine a Feminist Internet: Research, Practice and Policy in South Asia’

    What opportunities does technology provide to question and, ultimately, start changing gender norms? In February 2019, Point of View and the Internet Democracy Project are organising Imagine a Feminist Internet: South Asia’: a two-day regional conference bringing together researchers, practitioners and policymakers from across South Asia for critical conversations that seek to answer precisely that question. We invite papers from both young scholars and established researchers from South Asia to contribute to this conference and inspire the debates.   More

  • Unshackling expression: A study on laws criminalising expression online in Asia

    Unshackling

    Freedom of expression and opinion online is increasingly criminalised with the aid of penal and internet-specific legislation. This special issue of the Association of Progressive Communication’s Global Information Society Watch brings to light the problematic trends in the use of laws against freedom of expression in online spaces in Asia. The India chapter of the report has been authored by the Internet Democracy Project. Find the full report here. Our chapter on India has also been excerpted below.   More

    Research The impact of criminal law

  • Playing the Aadhaar card

    Will the final Aadhaar hearings that started this week, on 17 Janiuary, bring some relief where the privacy concerns of India’s people are concerned? Will our future world be one in which citizens’ autonomy, decision-making capacity and bodily integrity are further fostered or will we be saddled with architectures and ecosystems that fundamentally and continuously undermine these? Taking gender and the body as starting point, Dr. Anja Kovacs explains what is at stake in the Supreme Court case on Aadhaar and why there is no reason to be too hopeful yet, in this article first published in India Today.   More

  • Why the Supreme Court’s right to privacy judgement matters so much to marginalised people in India

    On 24 August, the Supreme Court of India ruled that, contrary to what the government had argued, Indians do have a fundamental right to privacy. For women, sexual minorities and other marginalised people in India, this judgement has potentially far-reaching consequences. This is especially because the Supreme Court has noted repeatedly that the right to privacy doesn’t only include the right to be left alone, but also to decision-making about personal life and to control information about oneself. Read on to find out more about our views on this important ruling. This post was first published in the Hindustan Times, on 30 August.   More

  • The Internet Democracy Project’s recently released work on gender and surveillance in India was featured in this week’s episode of the NDTV documentary program India Matters’, which looked at online websites with feminist content. From Pinjra Tod and Agents of Ishq – an online multimedia project on love, sex and desire – to stories of women scientists who are pushing boundaries to produce important works on the field of science, these feminist sites act not just as influencers but also as agents of change.   More

  • IGF 2016: A tale of victories – and new challenges

    Dr. Anja Kovacs from the Internet Democracy Project attended the Internet Governance Forum, 2016, at Guagalajara, Mexico, with the support of the Association for Progressive Communications. This post details highlights of the forum for her: there have been important gains in the debate with regards to gender and economic, social and cultural rights, but is the space for civil society at the cybersecurity table shrinking? Read on for more. This post was originally published on Association for Progressive Communications’ blog.   More