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Modi’s Friendship with Zuckerberg Cannot Wish Away Digital Policy Issues
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Credit: Wikipedia commons Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi being too generous in the way he has chosen to endorse brand Facebook by...
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Interview: Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Calls Internet.org a ‘Transitory Phenomenon’
Jimmy Wales, 2009. Credit: williambrawley/Flickr, CC BY 2.0 New York: With Facebook re-branding Internet.org as ‘Free Basics’, the battle over how exactly technology and Silicon Valley will affect...
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Silicon Valley, Modi Pay Homage to One Another
Modi’s method of reaching out to Silicon Valley marks a sharp difference with the approach of Chinese President Xi Jinping California Dreaming: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Digital India and...
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Modi Ends Silicon Valley Tour with Speech Cheerleading His Work
Modi and Zuckerberg in conversation. Credit: MEASan Jose: Wrapping up a two-day whirlwind tour of the who’s-who of technology, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday evening, rallied Silicon Valley’s...
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Here’s How India Could Kickstart Real Digital Governance
Credit: Wikimedia Commons Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced his commitment for a Digital India, and demonstrated it by visiting Silicon Valley. I hope this happens soon, but there is smaller...
View ArticleModi’s Charm Offensive May Not Convince US Corporates to Invest
Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooing big American corporations so assiduously? The manner in which he is trying to hard sell India to US multinationals may reflect a deeper anxiety over the lack...
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ICANN Struggles to Retain its Power as the Internet’s Czar Faces a Coup
The ICANN Board. Credit: icann/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 If you were Alice and the Internet was Wonderland, then the title of the Queen of Hearts would be reserved for the Internet Corporation for Assigned...
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Mobile Network Shutdowns Could Be Human Rights Violations
Credit: johanl/Flickr, CC BY 2.0 Since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government came to power at the Centre in May 2014, there have been at least three high-profile instances of mobile network...
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What India Can Learn from Europe about Protecting Online Buyers
A Flipkart package. Credit: Nadir Hashmi/Flickr CC 2.0 After some initial reluctance, Indians have vigorously taken to buying goods online. If data is needed to confirm the general sense, online sales...
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India Only ‘Partly Free’ When it Comes to Internet Freedom
Control is an Option to Command. Credit: Federico Cintra/Flickr CC 2.0 New Delhi: Internet freedom in India has improved for the second year running, according to the latest global report on the...
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The Past, Present and Future of the Printed Book
Credit: themarmot/Flickr, CC BY 2.0 Hear that? That’s the sound of Johannes Gutenberg rolling in his grave. Amazon, the very company that has done the most to disrupt the industry surrounding the...
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Not Just Cows, This Artist Uses Other Animals to Make His Point
The plastic cow which was taken away by police from the Jaipur Art Summit Young artist Siddhartha Kararwal’s blog opens with an October 5 entry – of an assemblage made of plastic toy cows. The white,...
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Facebook is Misleading Indians With its Full-page Ads About Free Basics
Over the last few days, Facebook has embarked on a massive advertisement campaign in favour of Free Basics even as TRAI has asked the company to temporarily suspend the service. Credit: Manikandan...
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Facebook’s Rebuttal to Mahesh Murthy on Free Basics, with Replies
Note: The year 2015 will undoubtedly go down as the time period during which important debates regarding net neutrality, India’s technology industry and the country’s Internet ecosystem were settled....
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No Recognition for the New Generation of Digital Rights
Plenty of Loose Ends. Credit: Pascal Charest/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 The international community’s attempt to shape a new agenda for the Information Society by taking forward the Declaration of...
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Netflix switches on in India, But There’s Still Some Fuzz
A quick snapshot of Netflix’s India-specific catalogue. India’s black market for movies and TV shows just got its biggest competitor: Netflix, the online video streaming service that has revolutionized...
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Like China’s Great Firewall, Facebook’s Free Basics Could Alter the Online...
Just as Chinese Internet users do not care about content outside the Great Firewall even after it’s unblocked, Free Basics users will likely continue to use the restricted bundle of services provided...
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Tussle over Net Neutrality in India Hits Final Stretch
As TRAI looks to make a final decision, the Save the Internet movement is rallying India’s start-up ecosystem while Facebook considers independent oversight of Free Basics. Free Basics: To use or not...
View ArticleExploring the Dubious Maths Behind Facebook’s Free Basics
Last month, Facebook claimed in its newspaper ads, “In India, more than 40% of users coming online for the first time with Free Basics pay for access to the full Internet within 30 days of joining Free...
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The Internet Has a New Standard for Censorship
The introduction of the new 451 HTTP Error Status Code for blocked websites is a big step forward in cataloguing online censorship, especially in a country like India where access to information is...
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