India’s top court considers whether privacy is a right: India’s Supreme Court began hearing submissions Wednesday to determine whether Indians have a constitutional right to privacy in a challenge to the government’s massive biometric database, which critics argue violates that right. A group of plaintiffs brought the case to protest against the government’s Aadhaar programme,…
Indians Call For More Stringent Data Protection Laws: The government is India is facing calls to establish better cybersecurity laws to protect consumers’ data after fears have crept up that Reliance Jio, the telecom startup in India, suffered a major data leak. According to a report in Reuters announcing the news, Jio denied the data leak took place, saying…
India immediately shut down Internet: In a democracy like India, internet shutdowns have become a norm. The authorities suspend mobile internet and broadband services whenever there have been violence, widespread protests because of social media posts or otherwise. According to Brookings Institution report, India lost over Rs. 6, 548 cores in business due to internet shutdowns in the past 3 years. Read…
Madhur Bhandarkar on Indu Sarkar protests: Rahul Gandhi, can I have my Freedom of Expression?: Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar on Sunday took to Twitter to call upon Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and sought his intervention into the grand old party’s constant interference in the press conferences of his upcoming directorial Indu Sarkar. Read More
Schools say proposal to use jammers to block porn sites confusing, will hamper work: “While the jammers will keep students from accessing porn sites, the teachers will also be affected adversely. It is difficult to work without the internet and sometimes we look up information online while teaching. Most of the official correspondence is also…
India must break out of its internet connectivity conundrum: India has among the world’s lowest data communications tariffs. With the entry of Jio to the market in late 2016, prices per MB have been set up to fall even further over the next few years, forecast by PwC/Strategy& to reach 5 paisa (less than 1…
The impact of Internet shutdowns: There were over 27 Internet shutdowns in 2016. Often, the same sequence of events plays out — communal unrest flares up, sometimes fueled by fake news, and the authorities see messages proliferating online, sometimes on messaging apps like WhatsApp, as a prime factor. Consequently, the Internet is shut down for…
Five killed in farmers’ stir in MP; mobile Internet suspended: Five persons were killed today as the farmers’ agitation turned violent in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, prompting the authorities to clamp curfew in the trouble-hit area. Some eyewitnesses alleged that the victims suffered bullet wounds, but Mandsaur district authorities denied that police fired on…
4G Internet likely to be restored in Kashmir: After the government restored 2G internet services, High speed internet likely to be restored late evening on Friday. Blanket ban on internet was imposed by authorities on 27th May after Hizb Commander Sabzar was killed in an encounter. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir had snapped the…
Internet ban in Kashmir- Who is behind it?: An RTI query by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) revealed that the internet ban in Kashmir was not ordered by official authorities. The home department and the divisional commissioner’s offices which are responsible for law and order hadn’t ordered the clampdown. Kashmir had suffered for…