Internet Democracy Project

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation on Network Neutrality covering traffic management practices, transparency requirements, policy framework, appropriate regulatory mechanism and more. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission in support of brightline rules of network neutrality with exceptions for reasonable traffic management. Read the full report here.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a United Nations Human Rights Council mechanism to assess how member States fare on their human rights record. Every 4.5 years, each member state of the UN is reviewed by the UPR Working Group for the State’s performance under international human rights obligations. The review is based on (a) a national report submitted by the State under review (b) reports of independent human rights experts and treaty bodies (c) reports from other stakeholders including non-governmental organisations. In this report, the Internet Democracy Project has highlighted the challenges to realising human rights on the Internet, in India. More information on the UPR process can be found here.

A coalition of organisations submitted a report towards the Universal Periodic Review of India for consideration at the 27th Session of United Nations Working Group to take place in 2017. The coalition includes Digital Empowerment Foundation, the Internet Democracy Project, Point of View, Nazdeek and Association of Progressive Communications. More information about the Universal Periodic Review process can be found here.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation on Internet Telephony, and invited comments from stakeholders. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission in support of interconnections between circuit and packet switched technologies- with an eye towards trends of convergence and stock-taking of relevance of the category of telephony as a distinct service in the age of IP-based networks. We examine the consequences for network neutrality in the longer term.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a pre-consultation paper on network neutrality, and invited comments from stakeholders. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission, asking that the consultation result in a clear and overarching framework that strengthens the freedom of expression that the Internet has enabled, and makes strong protections for user privacy, secures user choice by minimising Internet service provider interference and ensures healthy competition in the telecommunications and applications market.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) invited comments on their consultation paper No. 7/2016 on Free Data. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments to TRAI, asking the regulator to take steps that would lead to the strengthening of the Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services, 2016 Regulation, by giving business models which do not come under that regulation, but run the risk of having similar harms as discriminatory pricing, the same regulatory treatment. In general, we urge TRAI to develop a principle-based framework to preserve the Internet’s ability to function as an open and free infrastructure, which expands and refines principles that it has started to develop with the discriminatory tariffs regulation.

The Ministry of Home Affairs invited comments on the draft ‘Geospatial Information Regulation Bill’. Through this, the ministry seeks to regulate the acquisition, dissemination, publication and distribution of geospatial information of India which is likely to affect the security, sovereignty and integrity of India. The Internet Democracy Project* submitted comments to the ministry, outlining reasons why the draft bill does not succeed in addressing the national security concerns, while at the same time being disastrous for businesses, communities and individuals alike.

On 27 February, 2016, the Internet Democracy Project organised a national meeting of non-governmental stakeholders at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi, to discuss the findings of its latest research study, ‘Cybersecurity, Internet Governance and India’s Foreign Policy: Historical Antecedents’ by Mr. Saikat Datta. In this report, we summarise the findings of the discussions.