Merrin Muhammed Ashraf

On 13 February 2024, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf represented the Global Digital Justice Forum and IT for Change at a virtual consultation convened by the co-facilitators of the intergovernmental process for drafting a Global Digital Compact, which would be annexed to the Pact for the Future. The goal of the consultation was to allow civil society…

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 submission, firstly, we highlighted the important to…

In the May 2023 meeting of the Regulatory Working Group of the Coalition against Online Violence, Malavika Rajkumar and Merrin Muhammed Ashraf presented comments on the 2018 UNHRC Resolution on Violence against Women and Girls in the Digital Contexts, highlighting certain gaps and deficits in the objective and language of the Resolution that…

IT for Change participated in the call for inputs by the UN Special Rapporteur, in order to inform the report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism on online hate speech to 78th session of the General Assembly.

IT for Change's submission highlights how gender intersects with, compounds, and reinforces discrimination…

On 2nd January 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the draft Amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('Draft Amendment') in relation to online gaming as well as the due diligence requirements by intermediaries under rule 3(1)(b)(v).…

Continuing our engagement with UNESCO's effort to formulate a set of ‘Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms’ to safeguard freedom of expression and access to information, IT for Change provided comments and recommendations on the Draft 2.0 of the Guidelines. We commend the second draft of the Guidelines for recognizing the impact of both…

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-regulation of digital platforms, “with the aim of…

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 version, one which comes after over five years…

Oversight Board is an external, independent body created by Meta that people can appeal to if they disagree with Meta’s content enforcement decisions on Facebook or Instagram. Out of the appeals it receives, the Case Selection Committee of the Board will select the cases that the Board will hear based on some criteria that it sets (e.g.,…

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 virality of harmful content.

We believe that the…