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Pronoti Datta | June 4, 2011 August 7, 2010
The new gadgets in vogue
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Microsoft ready for the future web
September 25, 2010
New government regulations on internet use The latest from the world wide web.
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are intrusive and may have a chilling effect on
It sure is a tech world!
communications. October 9, 2010SAVE THIS ARTICLE
The first digital computer came to the country when Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister.
On April 11, the Union government quietly
enforced three sets of guidelines to regulate More in this Section
internet usage. Dealing with security practices
and sensitive personal information, FROM THE TIMES OF INDIA
intermediaries and cyber cafes, the rules
contain provisions that have angered the LATEST MOST POPULAR
online community-more so because they were 1. Mayawati condemns police action on Ramdev, wants SC
notified despite their being heavily criticised when they were opened to public scrutiny in probe
February. Yes, Big Brother just got scarily more powerful. 2. Shameful chapter in Indian democracy: Arun Jaitley
3. Ramdev fast: Police registers case against unnamed
The most problematic set of rules, say activists, is the one that concerns intermediaries. persons
According to the Information and Technology Act, 2000, an intermediary could be an internet 4. SP leader files complaint against Ramdev for 'casteist'
service provider, website, internet company or blog. The new rules demand that the intermediary remarks
notify users to not publish or use information that could be "harmful", "defamatory" or "causes 5. Action fascist, BJP to observe satyagraha: Nitin Gadkari
annoyance" in any way. If a government agency alerts an intermediary about the existence of
More from The Times of India
such information, the latter is required to block it within 36 hours.

PROFILES
The rule is worrying for several reasons. First, there is no definition of what constitutes
objectionable content. Secondly, the onus of removing content lies with the intermediary, 'I will fight to the finish'
because of which websites and internet service providers (ISPs) become liable for content Krittika Biswas did not want to
published by internet users or 'third parties'. The rule also requires intermediaries to block be another anonymous victim
'objectionable' content if they learn of its existence. But what's objectionable is highly subjective. of racial bias.

And it's not only the government that can object to content;individuals are allowed to write to
intermediaries if they want material that they find offensive blocked.

More Profiles
"These rules will have a vast, chilling effect on internet communications in India, " says Apar
Gupta, a lawyer who works at the Software Freedom Law Centre. "Intermediaries will turn from
FROM TIMES BLOGS
gentle ushers to burly bouncers, throwing out users and censoring content at the slightest hint of
trouble. And when the legal prescriptions are broad and vague, most opinion and criticism will be Pressing matters
blocked and censored pre-emptively. " Pakistan has experienced only
spasmodic democracy.
Pressing matters
The rules have a number of disturbing implications. In a country in which people are quick to
take offence, it's not hard to imagine laypersons calling for material to be removed and political What's the time, Mr Tata?
vendettas that involve banning websites. Gupta points out that the potential for abuse is high, A friend recently came here from the
given the ambiguity of the rules. "Hence, when there is no objective guidance on content which UK for business.
Rachel Rickard Straus
may "harm minors in any way", any clips which are tagged 'adult' on YouTube (for example) and
require a subscriber sign-in may be complained against and blocked in India, " he explains.
High, there!
Intermediaries are worried about the fallout of the rules. It has been reported, for instance, that Nothing mentioned here should ever
Google has expressed concerns that intermediaries will be vulnerable to liabilities, and that be construed to be a…
Anoop Kohli
content that is not illegal will end up being blocked.
More Times Blogs
What's also controversial is that the rules allow one to bypass the judicial process. All it takes to
get content removed is a letter to the intermediary. "A person who has written (something
considered objectionable) is considered guilty without trial, " says Nikhil Pahwa, editor of
Medianama, a portal that discusses issues related to digital media. "If he wants to reinstate
content, he has to go to court. " Pahwa adds that there is a thin line between criticism and libel
and that it is up to the courts to make distinctions. "Say, someone writes a critical essay on what's
happening in Bhatta Parsaul, " he says. "That's legitimate criticism. But someone can say that it's
harmful to Rahul Gandhi's political prospects. What if that request came from the Congress?
Would anyone want to defy the party?"

While internet communication in India is free compared to the restrictive regimes followed by
countries like China and Saudi Arabia, the new rules are being viewed as a way for the
government to regulate the medium in a more involved manner. The government has blocked
sites in the past. In 2006, it made news by blocking the blog-hosting service, Typepad, Clickatell,
a bulk SMS site and Mobango, a mobile application site, for reasons unknown. Earlier this year,
the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore filed an RTI to find out the sites blocked by the
government between 2008 and 2011. They got a list of 11 sites that includes an 'I Hate
Ambedkar' Facebook page and some adult sites. Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS, says
the process of blocking sites is not as transparent as it should be.

Pahwa views the rules as one tool, among others, to limit freedom of expression and invade
individual privacy. He believes that we are being dogged by the "troika of paranoia" -
interception, identification and blocking. Interception refers to the thousands of phone calls that
are tapped every month;Pahwa says it's not farfetched to believe that the interview, which took
place on the phone, was being tapped. He even has another mobile number for personal calls.
Identification refers in particular to the Unique Identification (UID) project that will eventually be
a vast storehouse of personal information that various government agencies could access and
potentially misuse.

Internet experts believe that information collected at cyber cafês too is in danger of being abused.
The rules instruct cyber cafê owners to take pictures of users, if they don't have a photo ID, and
keep logs of users for a year. The rules are obviously a way of shoring up cyber security. In the
past, terrorists have used cyber cafês. "ID requirements and data retention by ISPs on a blanket
basis has been going on for years, " Abraham says. "Where is the evidence that the existing level
of surveillance has prevented cyberterrorism or real-world terrorism? If no evidence exists, then
what is the need for more surveillance via these latest rules?"

Abraham also argues that cafê owners could misuse photographs, especially those of women and
children. "What happens if (the owner) takes multiple photographs, or zooms the camera
inappropriately?" he says. "In the age of nanotechnology, reducing form factor and software
sophistication, do we really need to incentivise surveillance by ordinary citizens?"

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