-Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) The Law Commission Report no. 267 of March 2017 on hate speech states that “hate speech” has not been defined in any law in India. However, legal provisions in certain legislations prohibit select forms of speech as an exception to freedom of speech. The term “hate speech” has been used invariably to mean expression which is abusive, insulting, intimidating, harassing or...

-NDTV NDTV scanned nearly 1,300 articles and cross-referenced this with databases. We went through 1,000 recent tweets of politicians and public figures. New Delhi: The use of hateful and divisive language by high-ranking politicians has increased almost 500% in the past four years, an NDTV data collection exercise has found. The premise of the exercise was simple: it seems not a day, or a week goes by without some senior politician -...

-The Hindu Law Commission asked to make draft Moving a step ahead towards framing a distinct law for online “hate speech,” the Home Ministry has written to the Law Commission to prepare a draft law. The provisions will deal with offensive messages sent through social media and online messaging applications. The decision came after a committee headed by former Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan submitted a report recommending stricter laws to curb...

-TheWire.in Union minister for information and broadcasting has announced the possibility of such a framework arguing that the present regulations on online content are “not clear” with regard to news and broadcast content material. New Delhi: In at attempt to regulate online content – particularly news and opinion –  the Modi government is working on a “code of conduct” and perhaps draft legislation too that it will be “incumbent upon [media] agencies”...

-The Indian Express Move to criminalise cyber speech will add impunity to power How to police a cyber space that has acquired the instincts of Frankenstein’s monster? In pursuit of answers, an expert committee submitted an interim report to the Union Home Ministry a couple of weeks ago. The recommended amendments to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are noteworthy for two reasons. One, they bring within the ambit of IPC (through amendments...