-The Economic Times The group said the threat posed by digital platforms to the integrity of the upcoming elections has assumed “alarming proportions”. A group of rights organisations and citizens — including Internet Freedom Foundation, Common Cause and former chief election commissioners N Gopalaswami and SY Quraishi — have “made an urgent appeal” to the Election Commission to rein in digital platforms to ensure integrity of the general elections. The group, which also...

-Livemint.com India is increasingly jailing its young for online posts that ‘offend’ politicians. The impact on their lives and families is devastating Initially, they all thought it was a joke when the police turned up. Once the prison gates opened, reality sunk in. Entering the dark, stinking cells, filled with dangerous looking strangers, they all felt a mix of emotions. There was of course incomprehension, fear, and an unexplainable feeling of guilt...

-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill opens the door to mass surveillance. This danger needs to be seen in the light of recent attacks on the right to dissent. No other country, and certainly no democratic country, has ever held its own citizens hostage to such a powerful infrastructure of surveillance. The Aadhaar project was sold to the public based on the claim that enrolment was “voluntary”. This basically meant that there was...

-Livemint.com The report, titled Limited Access Restricting Expression also makes a case for expansion of quality Internet access and last mile connectivity in both urban and rural India New Delhi: India needs to improve the right to freedom of online expression, according to recommendations of a report by the Digital Empowerment Foundation. The report, titled Limited Access Restricting Expression, and released on Thursday, also makes a case for expansion of quality Internet...

-The Indian Express Net neutrality prevents profit-driven entities from overriding freedom of the Web.  The key thing that should concern all of us this week about the internet is net neutrality. Here is a brief statement of things the way they are, no technical mumbo jumbo, no scholarly interpretations. The internet as we understand it is built on a foundational principle of not discriminating against the information and traffic that flows through...