Blogs by CCG NLU Delhi

Dirty Picture Project: Two Bollywood Virgins (pro) Take Down Sultan

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
By Lily Xiao and Victoria Christie [1] for the Dirty Picture Project. For more details on this project, write to Aarti at var _em0_0="aarti*b",_em0_1="havana$",_em0_2="nludelh",_em0_3="i*ac*in";document.write(" "+window.__liDecEmail(_em0_0,_em0_1,_em0_2,_em0_3)+" ") aartibhavananludelhiacin Upon its...

CCWG-Accountability WS2: An update

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
In the weeks leading up to the finalisation of the CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 Report, we traced the evolution of each recommendation. While things have been quiet on the drafting front, there has been a lot of activity towards completing and implementing Work Stream 1 recommendations, to clea...

Internet Shutdowns: An Update

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
At the time of posting, mobile internet services continue to remain suspended in parts of Jammu & Kashmir for the sixth consecutive day. The shutdown was enforced in response to the tense law and order situation prevailing in the Kashmir valley following the death of Burhan Wani, a top commande...

Implications of the US-India Cyber Relationship Framework

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
By Lily Xiao On 7 June 2016, ongoing discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama culminated in the US-India Cyber Relationship Framework , expected to be signed within 60 days. As part of a deepening strategic partnership between the US and India, the Framework establ...

WhatsApp Encryption: To Ban or Not to Ban

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Today, a division bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising of the Chief Justice Thakur and Justice Khanwalkar examined a public interest litigation petition seeking a ban on Whatsapp and analogous messenger apps. The petition, filed by Mr. Sudhir Yadav, states that the complete end-to-end encr...

Heading into Helsinki: Core issues at ICANN56

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
The upcoming 56th ICANN meeting shall be held in Helsinki, Finland from 27-30th June 2016. This is the first ‘Meeting B’ as per the new meeting strategy , which means a shorter, 4-day meeting focusing solely on policy work and outreach, and no public forum or public board meeting. A full schedule of...

EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online: An Analysis

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
By Rishabh Bajoria The Code On 31st May, the European Commission (EC) announced a new Code of Conduct for online intermediaries. This Code was formulated after mutual agreement between the EC and Facebook, Microsoft, Google (including YouTube) and Twitter. [1] It targets the prompt removal of hate s...

Subramanian Swamy v. UoI: Unanswered Arguments

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
By Anna Liz Thomas A lot has been made of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, finding criminal defamation laws in India, encapsulated in sections 499 and 500 of the IPC and section 199 of the CrPC, constitutional. Most public commentary has been critical of the reasons...

CCG analyses on the Criminal Defamation ruling

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Since the Supreme Court’s May 13th ruling on the constitutionality of criminal defamation laws in India, CCG has come out with two op-eds on the shortcomings of the judgment. In today’s Indian Express, Chinmayi Arun (Executive Director of CCG) raises important questions surrounding the implications ...

[Dirty Picture Project] Ki and Ka : Well-intentioned, but not quite there

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by Suniti Sampat and Anushka Sachdev With Cheeni Kum, it was ageism. With Paa, sensitization about degenerative diseases. With Ki and Ka, R Balki attempts to take on gender stereotypes. However, along the way, he seems to forget how multi-faceted the problem really is. While attempting to highlight ...

Supreme Court finds Criminal Defamation Constitutional

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Today, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court found criminal defamation as constitutionally valid. Recall that the Supreme Court had reserved judgment in this matter in August last year after extensive hearings . Leaders from across the political divide, including Subramanian Swamy, Arvind Kejriwal,...

Supreme Court to pronounce judgment on Criminal Defamation tomorrow

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla Pant is hearing a set of at least thirty petitions challenging the constitutional validity of criminal defamation (Sections 499 and 500 of IPC and section 199 of CrPC). The summary of hearings from the first six days can be found here . Firs...

SC hears the Aadhaar #NotAMoneyBill Challenge

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
A Supreme Court bench of the Chief Justice and Justices R. Banumathi and UU Lalit took up a petition by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) challenging the certification of the Aadhaar Act as a money bill by the Lok Sabha Speaker today. Senior Advocates Mr. P. Chidambaram, Mr. Kapi...
By Dr. Anup Surendranath The primary hurdle in determining the constitutional validity of introducing the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, (hereinafter, “the Aadhaar Act”) as a money bill is whether courts can judicially review the decisi...

Google de-platforms Taliban Android app: Speech and Competition implications?

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
About a few weeks ago, Google pulled an app from its online application marketplace the Google Play Store, which was developed by the Taliban for propagating violently extremist views and spreading hateful content. Google has stated that its reason for doing this is that the app violated its policy ...

I&B Ministry forms Committee to regulate content in Govt. Advertising

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Following the direction by the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an order last month establishing a three member committee to effectuate the Supreme Court Guidelines on Content Regulation of Government Advertising. Government advertising refers to the use of public f...

Russia, India and China: Perspectives on Internet Governance

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Last week, on 18th April, 2016, a Joint Communique of the 14th Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) raised a few eyebrows. The subject of discussion is paragraph 12 of the Communique which deals with the use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) includi...

The New Data Protection Regulation and its Impact on India

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
The European Parliament adopted the new Rules on Data Protection on the 14th of April, 2016. The new R egulation replaces the General Rules on Data Protection, 1995 and the 2008 framework decision on cross-border data processing in police and judicial cooperation within the EU. In January 2012, the ...

ICANN and Human Rights

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
The topic of human rights on the Internet has been one of significant interest, right from finding mention in the WSIS Declaration of Principles in 2003, to the UN Human Rights Council’s First Resolution on Internet Free Speech , which declared that the rights available to people offline must also b...

News alert: India gets 4 new IDN ccTLDs

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
ICANN recently announced the successful evaluation of four additional proposed IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) ccTLD strings for India. This was done through a fast track process that was approved by the ICANN Board in 2009. After the successful evaluation of the four new IDN strings (Malayalam...