Thread by @internetfreedom

Just in: Renowned musician and activist @tmkrishna challenged the IT Rules before the Madras High Court. IFF filed a writ petition on his behalf.

Today, the court has issued notice and given the government 3 weeks to file its counter affidavit.
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internetfreedom.in/madras-high-co…

The new, unconstitutional IT Rules seek to increase government regulation over social media, OTT, and digital news platforms. They have been challenged before other High Courts including Kerala HC where we represented @LiveLawIndia in their petition.
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internetfreedom.in/kerala-hc-gran…

TM Krishna's petition challenges the IT Rules on 5 major grounds: they violate the fundamental rights to freedom of speech, to practice any profession, and to privacy. They are arbitrary and suffer from excessive delegation, and are ultra vires the IT Act, 2000.
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Mr. Krishna says that the IT Rules offend his right as an artist and cultural commentator by threatening his freedom of expression and privacy.

In his words, our Constitution contains a commitment to the liberty of imagination. Censorship sans reason offends this commitment.
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The IT Rules 2021 are particularly harmful to musicians, artists and creators such as Mr. Krishna. He argues that they have a chilling effect on politically and socially salient art, and that privacy is necessary to create art which might involve challenging social norms.
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We are grateful to Suhrith Parthasarthy and Surasika Parthasarthy for representing @tmkrishna and IFF's @VrindaBhandari, @abhinavsekhri10, @SrikumarSanjana, @TanmayPratapS and @krishnesh78 for providing legal assistance. The next hearing will be 4 weeks from now.
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