12,368 — that's the number of content removal demands issued to Twitter by the Government of India. No other country has issued as many demands, ever.

The first round of Transparency Reports has been revealed, and this is what we found. 🧵 1/n

internetfreedom.in/big-tech-relea…
Guess what? 2 million accounts were banned by WhatsApp in 1 month.

Yes, you read that right. 2/n
Here's more: The government issued over 40,300 orders between July and December 2020. This affected over 62,754 Indian users in just 6 months, or an average of 10,000 Indian users every month. 3/n

transparency.fb.com/data/governmen…
The Government of India cited "national security" as its reason in most of the takedown orders issued to Google.

3/4ths have come from the police & MeitY, but no other information has been shared by Google yet — we have a right to know. 4/n
#BigTech companies must centre people's democratic rights, instead of colluding with those in power.

Government takedown orders must be publicly disclosed to truly champion transparency in the digital lives of Indian internet users. 5/n
Keep us going! IFF advocates for your fundamental and digital rights, and our work is fully funded by the people of India. Become an IFF member today and join the community.

internetfreedom.in/donate/

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More from @internetfreedom

15 Jul
Today, we look at India's new Health Data Management Policy. How well does it do on protecting the people's consent, data privacy and security? Is it inclusive, coercive, or too lenient with the private sector's access to your health data?🧵

1/n

internetfreedom.in/analysing-the-…
First, some positives: the HDMP centres privacy, user autonomy, and explicit & informed consent as its guiding principle. It gives certain rights to users on their medical data, including the rights to determine if they want their data erased or accessed by certain entities.
2/n
But if you've had the #CovidVaccine - you'll notice a Unique Health ID number has been issued on the certificate without consent or any prior information. This is at odds with the consent framework the Health Data Management Policy claims to uphold.
3/n

nationalheraldindia.com/india/modi-gov…
Read 9 tweets
14 Jul
Great news! The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a notification directing all states and UTs to sensitise police officials to strictly comply with Shreya Singhal v. Union of India and withdraw all cases under S.66A of the IT Act. (1/n) Screenshot of notification ...
In 2015, the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India struck down S.66A of the IT Act as unconstitutional and violating the right to free speech. Shockingly, however, police and prosecuting authorities continue to charge people under S.66A! (2/n)

Along with @CivicDatalab, we built zombietracker.in , to track S.66A cases. The results were surprising to say the least - More cases have been filed since the judgment, than before it!! We assisted @PUCLindia in bringing this data before the SC in an application. (3/n)
Read 7 tweets
14 Jul
In our weekly series #PrivacyOfThePeople, the IFF team critically looks at India's incoming data law and how well (or not) it protects vulnerable populations, and the data you constantly log in.

This week, we're looking at your healthcare data👇🏾 1/n

internetfreedom.in/will-indias-he…
So what exactly is healthcare data?

There are two types — personal, relating to your health conditions, & non-personal, where data is aggregated + anonymised. And there's an increasing interest in collecting this — for supposed effectiveness & better resource utilisation! 2/n
With the amount of health data India generates, protecting them is an uphill battle! In fact, between 2009 and 2020, 3,705 healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records have been reported.

So we have to ask: Is the incoming data law up to the task? 3/n

hipaajournal.com/healthcare-dat…
Read 9 tweets
13 Jul
Can Facebook India wash its hands off its role in the Delhi Riots? The Supreme Court says NO — it has upheld the summons issued by the Peace and Harmony Committee of Delhi Assembly and has made some pretty important observations.

Read our analysis 👇🏾
internetfreedom.in/explained-supr…
1/n
In the wake of the bloody Delhi Riots, the Delhi Assembly formed the Peace Committee, to try and understand what caused these riots. Before long, it received complaints regarding Facebook's role — soon after, this @WSJ article went viral 👇🏾
wsj.com/articles/faceb…

2/n
This led to the Parliamentary Committee on IT and the PaH Committee separately summoning Mr. Mohan, Facebook India head. Although he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee, he refused to appear before PaH Committee, stating that it did not fall under their legal domain.
3/n
Read 9 tweets
12 Jul
Has your account been blocked, suspended, or taken down... without notice? (Belated) explanations range from "national interest" to "fake news", but there's no real clarity — who takes them and on what basis? What legal options do we have?

Read 👇🏾
internetfreedom.in/was-your-handl…

1/n
The rate at which accounts are being suspended has increased ➡️ From 3600 in 2019, to 9800 in 2020, to almost 6000 within the first six months of 2021, government takedown orders have grown by leaps.

Excessive & arbitrary restrictions on speech dilute our digital rights.
2/n
In March 2021, in response to an RTI application filed by IFF, the Department of Telecommunications informed us that “94 blocking orders were issued by DoT during 2020 & 2021" and 3725 links were blocked/disabled.

Such widespread censorship undermines our democratic values!
3/n
Read 6 tweets
12 Jul
The IT Act 2000 is what governs today's #DigitalIndia. However, when it comes to 2021's tech realities, this Act is woefully inadequate and needs to be revised ASAP!

Our digital governance laws + frameworks must protect citizens' fundamental rights 👇🏾
internetfreedom.in/update-the-it-…
1/n
When the IT Act 2000 was brought in, only 0.5% of the Indian population (55 lakh) used the internet. The digital landscape consisted mainly of e-commerce websites. Now, with the rapid transformation of #DigitalIndia, we desperately need an update -
internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm

2/n
In Jan 2021, we received reports of plans by the government to update this Act. We followed up and were informed that @GoI_MeitY's discussions with "relevant stakeholders" have already begun. But it's not just the provisions that need an overhaul, it's the complete framework.
3/n
Read 9 tweets

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