India has called for transparency and accountability in internet security surveillance and for striking balance between human rights and national security. The global community needs “to create frameworks so that internet surveillance practices motivated by security concerns are conducted within a truly transparent and accountable framework”, Santosh Jha, external affairs ministry director general, told the…
Is Alok ‘Sansari’ Nath’s “Jail the bitch” a the clarion call for the next phase of women’s movement in this country? Are women becoming tired, slowly but surely, of being abused into silence in the cyber world? When 27-year-old Aishwarya Subramaniam expressed an opinion on the internet, a faceless troll responded: he wanted to kick…
Russia’s parliament gave its final approval on Friday to a law that would require Internet search engines to remove users’ personal information from their results. The bill, passed by the State Duma lower house in its third reading, seeks to emulate European Union rules on the “right to be forgotten”, under which search engines must…
India’s decision to support the multistakeholder model of internet governance has drawn mostly applause from civil society organisations and individuals who have been following the issue, even as they cautioned that implementation will determine the success of the model. A day after communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India will support the multistakeholder…
Everyone will agree to the fact that call-drop has become a nationwide epidemic, so much that telecom ministry has been enforced to put threatening fines on the providers and rightly so. The price of using a mobile plan these days warrants hassle-free service but sadly it has been anything but that forever. Finally, the ministry…
Thank you very much Mr. President, Excellencies, ladies and gentleman. Thank you for this first opportunity to address the Human Rights Council. Last summer, during your 26th session, the Council entrusted me with the mandate to promote and protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression, for which I’d like to express my gratitude…
The social web has been abuzz with indignant people responding to two sexist statements made by people in power, against the perceived role of women in our societies. Tim Hunt, the celebrated Nobel prize winner, in a speech he gave in Seoul, suggested that female scientists in the lab are a distraction because they either…
In a few days, net neutrality will once again be hotly debated when the report submitted by the telecom department to the TRAI will be made public. Whether the recommendations by the telecom department will be considered when the Indian government decides on net neutrality policies remains uncertain. But on a global level, net neutrality…
In July last year when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the British government could give travel documents to Lalit Modi as per their rules and regulations, the Enforcement Directorate was in the final stage of its investigation against the former IPL chief. Modi, who faces several charges of financial irregularity and whose passport had earlier…
The Internet Society of Australia had changed its name to Internet Australia. What’s in a name? The Internet Society by any other name would represent the Internet. But it wants a “more contemporary image.” President George Fong said the change of name is in keeping with the board’s determination to take a higher profile in…