Author
Pranesh Prakash
171 items.
5 Aug 2015
5 Aug 2015
News
Indian Porn Ban is Partially Lifted But Sites Remain BlockedThe Indian government made a quick about-face on its order to block hundreds of pornography websites on Tuesday, partially lifting the ban after political backlash against the moral policing.
5 Aug 2015
News
India launches crackdown on online pornIndia has launched a crackdown on internet pornography, banning access to more than 800 adult websites, including Playboy and Pornhub.
5 Aug 2015
News
India blocks access to 857 porn sitesIndia has blocked free access to 857 porn sites in what it says is a move to prevent children from accessing them.
5 Aug 2015
News
Ban on pornography temporary, says governmentThe government has taken a dramatic U-turn from its stated position on internet pornography.
3 Aug 2015
News
Proxies and VPNs: Why govt can't ban porn websites?The government's move to block more than 800 pornographic websites has led experts to question whether this latest attempt to police the internet is even feasible.
2 Aug 2015
News
Indian government orders ISPs to block 857 porn websitesThe Indian government has ordered a large number of porn websites to be blocked, creating an uproar among users and civil rights groups in the country.
25 Jul 2015
News
Will Indians have to pay for WhatsApp?India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) formed a panel in January 2015 to look into net neutrality in the country.
21 Jul 2015
Blog post
Clearing Misconceptions: What the DoT Panel Report on Net Neutrality Says (and Doesn't)There have been many misconceptions about what the DoT Panel Report on Net Neutrality says: the most popular ones being that they have recommended higher charges for services like WhatsApp and Viber, and that the report is an anti-Net …
8 Jul 2015
Blog post
Regulatory Perspectives on Net NeutralityIn this paper Pranesh Prakash gives an overview on why India needs to put in place net neutrality regulations, and the form that those regulations must take to avoid being over-regulation.
29 May 2015
News
Digital India: PM Modi to launch BJP's flagship programme likely in JulyThe Modi government, which completed one year at the Centre, is preparing for a big-ticket launch of Digital India, taking technology to the villages and block levels, through merchandise, hackathons and games spread over a week-long …
10 May 2015
News
Definition of Net Neutrality should be flexible: Pranesh PrakashCritics argue that Facebook’s Internet.org violates the principle of Net Neutrality.
9 May 2015
Blog post
Response to TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top (OTT) ServicesThe Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) sent a joint response to the TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) Services with scholars from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The response was sent on …
27 Apr 2015
News
Freedom struggle 2.0In the face of the debate on net neutrality, here is a look at the consequences of not having a free, equal, and private internet.
27 Apr 2015
News
Financial Express hosts #NetNeutralityDebate: ‘Price discrimination can be allowed, but not for the same packet of data’Trying to cut through the noise on Net Neutrality in India, FICCI in partnership with Financial Express is hosting a panel discussion titled ‘Decoding Net Neutrality’ in New Delhi on Wednesday.
29 Mar 2015
Blog post
Three reasons why 66A verdict is momentousEarlier this week, the fundamental right to freedom of expression posted a momentous victory. The nation's top court struck down the much-reviled Section 66A of the IT Act — which criminalized communications that are "grossly offensive", …
17 Mar 2015
Blog post
What Does Facebook's Transparency Report Tell Us About the Indian Government's Record on Free Expression & Privacy?Given India's online population, the number of user data requests made by the Indian government aren't very high, but the number of content restriction requests are not only high on an absolute number, but even on a per-user basis.
15 Dec 2014
Blog post
Overview of the Constitutional Challenges to the IT ActThere are currently ten cases before the Supreme Court challenging various provisions of the Information Technology Act, the rules made under that, and other laws, that are being heard jointly. Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan who's arguing …
18 Nov 2014
Blog post
The Socratic debate: Whose internet is it anyway?In the US, President Obama recently spoke out on the seemingly arcane topic of net neutrality. What is more astounding is that the popular satire news show host John Oliver spent a 13-minute segment talking about it in June, telling …
23 Apr 2014
Blog post
NETmundial Transcript ArchiveWe are archiving the live transcript from the NETmundial meeting (April 23-24, 2014).
27 Mar 2014
Blog post
CIS Statement at ICANN 49's Public ForumThis was a statement made by Pranesh Prakash at the ICANN 49 meeting (on March 27, 2014), arguing that ICANN's bias towards the North America and Western Europe result in a lack of legitimacy, and hoping that the IANA transition process …
18 Mar 2014
Blog post
NTIA to give up control of the Internet's rootOn Friday evening the U.S. government's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it was setting into motion a transition to give up a few powers that it holds over some core Internet functions, and …
25 Feb 2014
Blog post
Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 3: The Public/Private Distinction and the Supreme Court’s Wrong TurnAfter its decision in Gobind, the Supreme Court's privacy floodgates opened; a series of claims involving private parties came before its docket, and the resulting jurisprudence ended up creating confusion between state-individual …
27 Jan 2014
Blog post
Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 2: Gobind and the Compelling State Interest TestGautam Bhatia analyses the first case in which the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to privacy, Gobind v. State of Madhya Pradesh, and argues that the holding in that case adopted the three-pronged American test of strict …
13 Jan 2014
Blog post
Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 1: FoundationsIn this insightful seven-part series, Gautam Bhatia looks at surveillance and the right to privacy in India from a constitutional perspective, tracing its genealogy through Supreme Court case law and compares it with the law in the USA.
6 Dec 2013
Blog post
Misuse of Surveillance Powers in India (Case 1)In this series of blog posts, Pranesh Prakash looks at a brief history of misuse of surveillance powers in India. He notes that the government's surveillance powers have been freqently misused, very often without any kind of judicial or …
21 Oct 2013
Blog post
Tweets from Bali IGF 2013CIS is logging all tweets with the words "igf2013", "igf13", "igf", "bestbits", and "genderit" during the Intenet Governance Forum going on in the Bali this week, and making it available in downloadable files.
21 Aug 2013
Blog post
Copyrights and Copywrongs Why the Government Should Embrace the Public DomainEach of you reading this article is a criminal and should be jailed for up to three years. Yes, you. "Why?," you may ask.
15 Jul 2013
Blog post
How Surveillance Works in IndiaWhen the Indian government announced it would start a Centralized Monitoring System in 2009 to monitor telecommunications in the country, the public seemed unconcerned. When the government announced that the system, also known as C.M.S., …
15 Jul 2013
Blog post
Can India Trust Its Government on Privacy?In response to criticisms of the Centralized Monitoring System, India’s new surveillance program, the government could contend that merely having the capability to engage in mass surveillance won’t mean that it will. Officials will argue …