So #TelecomBill is being unexpectedly tabled in Parliament today. There was discontent abt treating several online services as telecom services. Telcos liked it: they’ve argued that online services = telecom services & should be treated as same.
Some things to look out for:
1/n 1. Are online services all telecom? Will the definition of “telecommunications” go beyond telecom operator services and include online, like broadcast, cloud, email, video, data communications etc? Remember that the Broadcast Bill from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
2/n

Multiple opposition MPs (Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shashi Tharoor, Mahua Moitra, Pawan Khera +) have disclosed that they received messages from Apple about state sponsored attackers compromising their Apple devices. We will probably hear about more MPs soon. A few things:

1/n 1. Sophisticated attacks, multiple vectors: such attacks are virtually impossible to guard against, because they could get you to click on a link via any medium: email, sms, WhatsApp message etc. It could be a message posing as a credit card statement, ecommerce package

2/n

It's 2023 and I'm not sure if anyone cares for #netneutrality in India anymore, but Jio, Vi and Airtel are coming for it.

Don't take my word for it. Here are excerpts from their submissions to @TRAI (uploaded last night) : Jio wants Internet companies to "contribute" towards telecom network costs, based on volume of traffic, turnover threshold, number of users etc. Basically, apps should pay telcos because users want to use an app.

On by the way, guess what...

India's Data Protection Bill is set to
be released soon, maybe even tomorrow or Friday. I thought I'd make a list of things to keep an eye out for, in terms of how the bill deals with them. A thread on what to look for in the Bill:
#DataProtectionBill #India
1/n 1. Look for "Deemed Consent" in the bill: Can someone take your data without your permission or even knowing...train facial recognition tools using your social media photos? Critical when you look at training AI datasets. Probably one of the most
2/n #dataprotectionbill

My recommendation to journalists interested in tech policy is to always attend government consultations, especially TRAI ones. I've learned so much from them.

Attended my first in 2006. Didn't speak at one for years (because I wasn't confident about my knowledge of the...

https://twitter.com/nixxin/status/1633735727459745794

domain). There was one on VAS in Bangalore where I first spoke because the person there from Voda was misrepresenting something. A TRAI person came over to me after the session and thanked me, and said I should participate more.

Yesterdays was the first that I attended after...

I'm on a @TRAI call right now. They're considering forcing the display of our name& other info to whoever we are calling on basis of telco KYC.

I told them this is a terrible idea (privacy). They've asked me to do a written filing.

Tell me why you think its a good/bad idea. Yikes. Someone is suggesting a govt owned app which people can search.

This is what happens when you leave telecom discussions to telecom uncles.

@HannahEP It's a sign of things to come, Hannah. Over the past few years, we've seen moves to restrict freedoms both for media and platforms:
1. Restrictions on foreign investment in digital media, which saw HuffPost and Yahoo News shutter in India

2. Expansion of platform rules to
+ @HannahEP Create criminal liability for platform employees and the subsequent sending of the police to Twitter's office in Delhi. They can now force platforms to delete content without protest
3. Inclusion of digital media in Internet regulations to allow the govt to take down news
+

You remember how Airtel sliced off Internet calls into a separate pack, which eventually led to the #NetNeutrality campaign?

Telcos are at it again: m.economictimes.com/et-brands/must…
They want online messaging to be licensed in India and are lobbying @DoT_India and @AshwiniVaishnaw
1/n And @DoT_India and @AshwiniVaishnaw are considering changing India's hard fought and globally recognised #NetNeutrality standing. I hope @PMOIndia is watching this. The Draft telecom bill decidedly favours mobile operators, and seeks to bring even email under licensing. It's
2/n

Forget the penalty imposed on Google in India by @CCI_India . What really hurts Google is this 👇 Interestingly, and this is important: @CCI_India found no substitutability between Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, and the competition between Android and Apple is only at the time of deciding which device to buy.
2/n

Frankly, @Paytm 's problem is not @vijayshekhar . Problem is the Indian govt that destroyed the digital payments business model with Zero MDR & @NPCI_NPCI
that is a private org but does the Indian govt's bidding.

India = fintech graveyard. m.economictimes.com/tech/technolog… Why would you build a UPI business today?

Look at what is happening in UPI:
1. Where is competition, hundreds of UPI apps? 3 apps dominate: GPay, PhonePe, Paytm. Hardly anyone is a even a blip in this space. So much so that @NPCI_NPCI if forcing restricting market share
1/

Some thoughts on this:
1. A law of markets: first there's bundling (cable tv). Then there's unbundling (streaming). Then there is bundling. We're already seeing bundling in India, as a part of telco plans, to reduce subscriber acquisition costs.

1/n

variety.com/2022/digital/n… 2. Advertising and subscriptions are often at odds with each other. One is focused on premium offerings, and pitches less interruptions with ads. The other focuses on increasing subscriber base to deliver better reach for advertisers. Disney+ is increasing prices while
2/n

India's joint parliamentary committee on the Data Protection Bill, 2021 has tabled its report in Parliament.

We've uploaded the report here: medianama.com/2021/12/223-pd…

#dataprotection
#dataprotectionbill2021
#india
#privacy MediaNama is publishing summaries of the JPC report on India's Privacy / #dataprotectionbill2021 today. Here goes:

2. On data localisation and cross border data transfers: medianama.com/2021/12/223-da…

There's uncertainty in the crypto space again, after the Cryptocurrency Bill is expected to get tabled. The problem is the announcement text: which states in its description that the Bill seeks to "prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India".This is confused nomenclature.
1/n It's not clear which cryptocurrencies are private, and which are public - does that mean publicly available, or only those issued by governments (of which there are none).

There have been rumours about the RBI planning their own cryptocurrencies -- so called Laxmi Coin.

2/n

Supreme Court has appointed a largely technical committee, headed by Justice Ravindran, former SC judge, to investigate the Indian government's usage of Pegasus. I'll be on NDTV at 9pm on this.

A thread (which I'll update through today)
1. National security: SC observed

1/ that "National Security" is not a free pass for the govt to do what it wants. Their alleged usage of Pegasus needs to be investigated. Hence an expert committee

2. Not a govt committee: the court has appointed its own committee and chose not to accept the govts offer of

2/

A war by a government against its own citizens.

Among all the things that were said in the Supreme Court today in the #Pegasus case, this from Shyam Divan really hit home. Especially since Mr. Divan is representing my uncle @JagdeepChhokar.

medianama.com/2021/08/223-pe…

1/ 2. Remember that apart from protectors of democracy like him, people targeted for surveillance in this case were Parliamentarians, Journalists & judges.

This is an attack from one pillar of democracy,the Executive,against the other three (Legislature, Media and Judiciary).

2/

#pegasus 🧵
There is nothing shocking or surprising about governments spying using Pegasus. We've known about Pegasus since at least 2016. First known use in India that we know about was in Bhima Koregaon spying, allegedly by Indian govt.  A few points for your consideration:
1/ 1. A govt has used it to spy: Pegasus is sold only to govts. So it would follow that it has been used by a govt against ministers, journalists, opposition leaders, supreme court judges, and many others. This is essentially an attack on our freedoms in india.
2/

I have a slightly unusual take on the Indian government / @GoI_MeitY 's threat to remove intermediary status for @Twitter if it doesn't comply with the Rules.

Thread 👇
1. An intermediary is an entry which is merely a platform for you & me to publish / transfer info. It does
1/ Not modify the content, so isn't liable. So if I defame you on Twitter, you can't hold Twitter responsible. Unless, under India law, you have actual knowledge. Now the Indian Supreme Court said, on March 24th 2015, that actual Knowledge = court order or govt order.
2/

So WhatsApp has sued the Indian government for imposing the IT Rules 2021. This is probably the most significant privacy case in India, ever since the Right to Privacy case.

Thread on what this is about: 1. WhatsApp uses end to end encryption. This doesn't just mean that they don't know what is in our messages. It also means that they don't know who has sent what message.

The only time they can see the content of the message is when someone marks it as spam,in which case the
1/

Seeing lots of tweets suggesting that Twitter & Facebook might be banned tomorrow after IT Rules 2021 come into effect.

Some news entities irresponsibility playing on this with alarmist clickbait headlines too
indiatoday.in/technology/new…

This is wrong. I'll explain:

1/ 1. IT Rules 2021 are coming into effect tomorrow, and even if the deadline won't get extended, the Govt is unlike to enforce all the provisions & hold platforms to account unless it really needs to, because the platforms could then move court to challenge the guidelines.
2/

So, a thread with some context on the Government of India asking Twitter to remove the "Manipulated Media" tag on Sambit Patra's tweet. Story here: medianama.com/2021/05/223-sa…

1. There's no official statement, no copy of the letter sent, but news agencies like ANI and PTI are
1/ reporting it quoting anonymous sources so there seems to be a selective leak. What stops MEITY from publishing its correspondence anyway? Not clear. We'll file RTI's anyway.

2. The government can object all it wants, but exactly what part of India's IT Act allows them to have
2/

So, some thoughts on the deplatforming of Kangana Ranaut by Twitter.

1. This is probably the first instance where Twitter has deplatformed a significant (and politically active) user in the country. It creates for an interesting debate.

2. Indian politicians were worried:
1/ In January 2021, @Tejasvi_Surya had raised concerns about Twitter's exercise of such power when Donald Trump had been deplatformed. He had called for amendments to India's approach to Intermediary Liability to address such situations.
2/
medianama.com/2021/01/223-bj…