Internet Governance/Advocacy

UNESCO has released its initial draft proposal of the ‘Guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms: a multistakeholder approach’ (Guidance Document) for inputs and observations. The document is meant to serve as a guidance on the regulation, co-regulation, and self-…

IT for Change submitted an input to the UN Human Rights B-Tech project in response to its call for inputs on gender, digital tech, and the role of business, using the lens of the United Nations Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) applied from a gender perspective. In our…

The public release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot by OpenAI, in November 2022, percolated the public consciousness with the disruptive potential, both incredible and iniquitous, of emerging general purpose AI technologies. In the following months, AI has dominated the public discourse and…

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. With an aim to increase platform accountability, the proposed amendments focus heavily on stemming the…

The National Health Authority (NHA) recently released its Data Sharing Guidelines draft for PM-JAY. The NHA invited responses and comments from the public and as such IT for Change duly sent in its recommendations. While the NHA's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, there are a…

Cross-border data flows are the most hotly contested issue globally in terms of digital trade. IT for Change proposes a new framework to govern cross-border data flows, 'Data Flow with Data Right', which in our view should assure developing countries that their concerns, especially economic and…

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has published a draft version of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (hereinafter the Bill) for public comments to be submitted by January 2, 2023. The current draft of the personal data protection bill marks the fourth…

The new Intermediary Guidelines (IL Guidelines), require messaging platforms that have over 50 lakh registered users (such as WhatsApp) “enable the identification of the first originator of the information”.

The challenge from WhatsApp is that this impinges on an individual’s…

IT for Change responded to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare public consultation white paper for the India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA). The key points of our submission are summarized below.

The full submission may be found here.

IT for Change responded to the call from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020.

In light of the growing recognition of the dominance of certain platforms in…

Karnataka’s Open Data Policy opens up a Pandora’s box of concerns for public interest and citizen rights

IT for Change's research series on Intelligence Infrastructures interrogates essential digital infrastructures that underpin the economy, society, and governance, putting the spotlight on the need for democratic control of these building blocks of tomorrow. Policies must straddle a people-…

Anita Gurumurthy was a part of the IGF 2021 Main Session: Digital Cooperation- Quo vadis? on December 8, 2021 where she gave a statement on the role IGF can play in digital cooperation.

This session was for assessing Internet governance approaches and mechanisms and…

The Indian Government appears convinced that cryptocurrency is a dangerous proposition. Cryptocurrency enables relatively invisible transactions, with serious implications for crime, terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, etc. Another worry is that…

Just Net Coalition, along with more than 170 civil society groups addressed an Open Letter to the UN Secretary General urging him to shelve plans for a High Level Multistakeholder Body which, if set up, can be expected to become the default apex global digital governance and policy body. This…