SFLC.in participated in a 2 day workshop organized by IT for Change in Bengaluru on the theme of the changing nature of human rights in the digital age. This involved understanding digital rights from a lens beyond that of civil and political rights and to include the social and economic rights in its purview as…
On 1 December, nature decided to drop 30cm of rain in a 24-hour period over Chennai. It was the heaviest downpour Chennai experienced in a century, and the city and its people were haplessly unprepared for the record deluge. I live close to a suburb that has the Tamil word for lake (Eri) in its…
Kerala is expected to be declared the first digital State in the country shortly, on the strength of its digital infrastructure and e-governance initiatives. Discussions are on to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the declaration, Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson said here on Thursday. Delivering the inaugural address at the Knowledge Sharing Summit organised…
Since June 2014, the most significant dips in online freedom occurred in Libya, Ukraine and France. China occupies the top spot as the worst abuser of internet freedom, with Google being almost completely blocked in the country and repressive laws governing online behaviour being enforced with greater gusto. Globally, surveillance has increased and if there’s…
Ritu Srivastava, from Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) India, participated in the workshop Freedom of Expression Online: Gaps in Policy and Practice at the Internet Governance Forum in Brazil. She writes: We are no longer living in an offline society. We are living more and more in an online world, connecting with people from different countries,…
India is set to overtake the US in internet user base by the end of this calendar year, making it the second largest base for internet users in the world. In an interview to Bloomberg TV India , Google’s VP and MD for South-East Asia & India, Rajan Anandan, explains the matrix of the internet…
Ipsos MORI conducted a survey in which they polled 25,000 people in 33 countries and found that while people “over-estimate what we worry about”, a lot of major issues are underestimated. Based on the findings of the survey, Ipsos ranked nations on their “ignorance” level. The “ignorance” level was determined by a survey posing questions…
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to examine if social networking sites like Facebook and WhatsApp can be prosecuted for use of their platforms to circulate offensive and vulgar material but turned down a plea to block the sites. A social justice bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit asked…
The Centre is committed to addressing the country’s digital divide, and a multi-pronged strategy comprising expansion of internet infrastructure, and training and capacity building, is on to take e-governance to the grassroots. This was observed by Sanjiv Mittal, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, during an interview with The Assam…
In a bid to come out ahead in the digital revolution race, the state government plans to put in place an egovernance structure by 2020. Speaking at Infocom on Saturday, state finance, IT, commerce & industries minister Amit Mitra said that as the first step, the state government is rolling out the optical fibre network…