Defender of your Digital Freedom

Yesterday, India entered 7-phases of national elections spanning a little over a month. This election season, we bring to you a ‘Digital Rights Reform Agenda’ which is missing from most political parties’ promises and manifestos. We believe that these topics should be on the agenda list of all political outfits in India claiming a stake on parliament seats. A list of key digital rights issues worthy of political importance are (more…)

We organised a Conference on 'Future of Tech Policy in India' on 15 March 2019 in Delhi. Over 150 people participated in the conference. Our report on Intermediary Liability 2.0 - A shifting Paradigm was launched during this conference.

 

A Blue Paper containing inputs received during this conference is available below. This document does not reflect the views of SFLC.in.

 

Brief agenda:

• 09:30 AM to 10:00 AM: Registration

• 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM: Session 1 - Misinformation and Intermediary Liability

• 11:30 AM to 11:40 AM: Overview of the Report on ‘Intermediary Liability 2.0: A Shifting Paradigm’

• 11:40 AM to 11:50 AM: Tea Break

• 11:50 AM to 01:15 PM: Session 2 - The Role of Social Media in Elections

• 01:15 PM to 02:00 PM: Lunch

• 02:00 PM to 03:20 PM: Session 3 - Online Harassment

• 03:20 PM to 03:30 PM: Tea Break

• 03:30 PM to 03:50 PM: Lightning Talk on FreedomBox

• 03:50 PM to 05:00 PM: Session 4 - The Future of Tech Policy

The 7-phase, 17^th Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11, 2019 and continue until May 19, 2019. Five major national parties – Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janta Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India and All India Trinamool Congress have released their manifestos[fn]CPI (M) Election Manifesto, https://cpim.org/pressbriefs/cpim-election-manifesto-17th-lok-sabha;

CPI Election Manifesto, https://www.communistparty.in/blog/election-manifesto-of-the-communist-party-of-india-for-the-17th-lok-sabha-elections-2019;

TMC Election Manifesto, http://aitcofficial.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/TMC-MANIFESTO-Eng.pdf;

INC Election Manifesto, https://manifesto.inc.in/en/index.html

BJP Election Manifesto, http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5798075-Bjp-Election-2019-Manifesto-English.html[/fn], outlining party priorities and future course of action the parties promise to take if voted to power. At of the time of publication of this post, Aam Aadmi Party has not released its manifesto. We will update this blog as and when it is published. Acknowledging the indispensable role of digital technology in society and its capacity to impact our human rights, most party manifestos have touched upon digital rights.

We studied these manifestos and have captured promises made by these five national parties on digital rights. Kindly refer to the following table for a comparison: