Why I support Annulment of Intermediary Guidelines (Indian IT) Rules

CIS has a detailed blog post explaining why all of us who care about freedom of expression on the internet should support annulment motion by MP P. Rajeeve.

You should actually read that blog post but the following are the most important points

No chance to defend.
There is no need to inform users before this content is removed. So, even material put up by a political party can be removed based on anyone's complaint, without telling that party. This was done against a site called *CartoonsAgainstCorruption.com". This goes against Article 19(1)(a).

Government censorship, not 'self-regulation'.
The government says these are industry best-practices in existing terms of service agreements. But the Rules require all intermediaries to include the government-prescribed terms in an agreement, no matter what services they provide. It is one thing for a company to choose the terms of its terms of service agreement, and completely another for the government to dictate those terms of service.


Video: why the IT Rules are a threat to your Internet as you know it

Government, police or an angry mob can force your blog (freedom of expression) or your business (web-based) to go offline without notice. Which is kind of insane isn't it?

Thankfully there are some smart MPs in our parliament who are trying to pass a motion to annul these rules. We can't just sit and watch. We need to support MPs who are supporting this motion. Call other MPs and ministers to urge them to support this motion.

To call your MP, ministers and to send them an email, use this online form provided by CIS. Its easy doesn't take more than a minute. If you want to do more use the postal address to send a hard-copy of the letter or use the given official phone number to call them.

To support Member of Parliament P. Rajeeve, go to change.org and sign the petition. It doesn't stop there. Share this information with your friends and family. Urge them to do the same.

1 Response

  1. Shweta says:

    Nice sum up Thej. Didnt know this MP at all will share with all my friends. Thanks for the blog :)