As more Indians gain access to internet, digital rights become imperative

In March 2018, when the Uttar Pradesh chief minister tweeted about the end of 'Goonda Raj’, a young fellow called Zakir Ali Tyagi responded by asking about the 28 criminal cases registered against the chief minister himself. The UP police immediately arrested Tyagi under Section 66A. But Section 66A of the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000, which allows for the arrest of people who post allegedly “offensive” content on websites, had been struck down by the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional three years earlier.

In August 2018, Rajasthan government shut down all mobile internet services to prevent cheating during the state services exam in Ajmer, Bharatpur and Jodhpur.

These are the sort of cases that Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) - a bunch of young lawyers, journalists and techies committed to the cause of digital rights, net neutrality and free speech, takes up. Although, it is estimated that soon every fourth person will be a smart phone user in India, few understand digital rights. “We want to change this,” says IFF’s executive director Apar Gupta. 

IFF’s executive director Apar Gupta

To this end, IFF has spearheaded three public projects —#SaveOurPrivacy, #SaveTheInternet and #KeepUsOnline. The first project advocates the setting up of a strong privacy law. It has also generated awareness about digital privacy, data protection, interception and surveillance. “Our draft Privacy Bill 2018 is available online in an editable format,” says Gupta. “We expect it to become better through a process of public endorsement and review.” #SaveTheInternet addresses the issue of websites being illegally blocked by Internet Service providers, and has a crowd-sourced information form encouraging users to report violations of net neutrality. “In 2016, India had the most internet shutdowns than anywhere else in the world,” says Gupta. “That was when we launched the successful campaign #KeepUsOnline.”  

IFF’s novel online campaigns are cost-effective, replicable and more dynamic than its offline counterparts. “They require a lot of thought and research,” says Gupta, “for each issue is explained through simple videos and FAQs.” Simultaneously, the lawyers (Gupta included) and policy experts in IFF advocate for good digital laws with regulators, lawmakers and most recently, politicians. 

Their latest advocacy effort has been to make online political campaigns transparent. With other civil society organisations (CSOs), IFF has recommended that the Election Commission develop a protocol for political campaigns on social media. “Political parties must disclose their expenditure on online election campaigns as well as details of all official or individual handles on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ShareChat, TikTok and the like,” says Gupta. Additionally, IFF has circulated a draft policy note on digital rights and privacy among all political parties. The Congress and CPI-M have already included digital rights and privacy in their election manifestos this year. 

“This year is going to be critical for digital rights,” says Gupta. “Digital rights are being violated; the online economy is centralising rapidly, risking the privacy of users and the freedom of creators.” To address all these issues, IFF, presently with only two full-time staffers and several volunteers, will need to grow. “So far, we raise about 

Rs 1 lakh every month through online donations and our subscribers,” he says. “This year, we need to budget about Rs 1.2 crore to grow.”

Meanwhile, Gupta is partnering with CSOs, netizens, volunteers and organisations to spread awareness about digital rights. “We all need to do what we can,” he says. “For technology leads to a better life when it enables human freedom.”

Learn more at internetfreedom.in. For their campaigns, visit savetheinternet.in and saveourprivacy.in or follow them on Facebook and Twitter