Internet Democracy Project

Instead of understanding ​‘data’ as a resource to be tapped, what if we employ other metaphors around data? How does that change our reading of the draft Personal Data Protection Bill? Data as bodies, data as labour, data as exhaust, data as distraction – so much turns on which metaphor we choose to give precedence to! Taking this as a starting point, a group of activists and researchers got together to understand what the draft Personal Data Protection Bill means for social movements and issues they might be embedded in, and in turn, how different movements can contribute their wisdom to strengthen the bill. This was jointly drafted by participants following two workshops organised in Bangalore and Delhi by the Internet Democracy Project in September 2018.   More

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology invited public comments to the draft Personal Data Protection Bill and accompanying report. The report claims that the proposed framework is a fourth way (others being the European Union model, the United States model and the Chinese model) that is tailored to suit India and other developing countries. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission, with general comments as well as some specific suggestions.    More

The Government of India constituted a committee of experts to draft a data protection bill that would be put in place the data protection framework for India. The committee published a white paper and invited comments and feedback. The Internet Democracy Project made recommendations to the committee, drawing from the Report of the Committee of Experts headed by Justice AP Shah, and highlighting the need to center the data subjects, incorporate new articulation of rights and have strong implementation mechanisms. Read our submission here.   More

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) invited comments for consultation paper no. 09/2017 on Privacy, Security and Ownership of User Data in the Telecom Sector. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments to TRAI, asking the regulator to centre users’ rights over their data as part of the fundamental right to privacy, while balancing these rights with innovation in uses of data and also innovation in regulation. We also submitted that TRAI should not go as far as to recommend data protection requirements for ​‘all players in the ecosystem’, as this goes beyond the TRAI’s mandate.   More

The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences (‘SRVAW’) issued a call for input and information on online violence against women – particularly on the manner in which legal frameworks, courts and intermediaries in different countries recognise online abuse and provide redressal mechanisms for the same. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission outlining India’s fairly comprehensive legal framework for online abuse. We believe that the focus of all stakeholders should not be on the creation of more laws to address online abuse, since such an approach disregards the influence of prevailing social norms on the interpretation and implementation of laws in India. We therefore, made suggestions for the adoption of more non-legal measures instead.   More

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.   More

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 © 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.   More

A coalition of organisations submitted a report towards the Universal Periodic Review of India for consideration at the 27^th 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.   More

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.    More

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.   More