The battle for controlling the Internet has already
begun. As far as India is concerned, its proposal on International
Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), submitted last month to the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has already faced stiff
opposition from many segments.
The cyber law of India, incorporated as the
information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000), has already crossed
the limits of constitutionality and reasonableness. In fact, Praveen
Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law
and CEO of PTLB,
has already shown his dissatisfaction with the proposed IT Act 2008
amendments in the year 2008 itself. Some have even suggested that the
cyber
law of India should be repealed.
According to Praveen Dalal, “The IT Act 2000 is
more on the side of a collection of “Legal Jargon” than a Law as
contemplated by the Constitution of India. With the Information
Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Act 2008), even this Legal Jargon
has become a “Legal Nuisance”. The net effect of the IT Act 2008
was that Indian Cyber Law ceased to be a “Reasonable and
Constitutional Law”.
Indian police force is openly misusing the
provisions incorporated by the IT Act 2008 amendments and are
arresting netizens even for the slightest form of political and
personal disagreement. In these circumstances the “Interim
Proposal” of Indian Government to ITU is a great “Cause of
Concern” opines Dalal.
Now even the European Parliament has warned that
control of the Internet must be stopped from falling into the hands
of ITU. The representatives of EU have demanded from the negotiators
to block attempts by the ITU to gain ultimate control over the
Internet. A conference in Dubai is expected to be held next month in
this regard.
The World Conference on International
Telecommunications (WCIT) will attempt to revise international
telecommunication regulations, which have not been updated since
1988. However, European Parliament is not happy with some of the
proposals presented ahead of WCIT. It believes that if these
proposals are accepted, this could result in the ITU
itself becoming “the ruling power of the Internet”.
Important issues like Cyber
Security, Cyber
Forensics, E-Surveillance,
Human
Rights Protection in Cyberspace, International
Cyber Crime Investigation Support, etc must be essential
part of the proposed ITRs, suggest Dalal.
What would be the final outcome of these
deliberations cannot be predicted at this stage but any attempt to
regulate or curb Internet freedoms must be strongly protested against
by both national and international civil liberty stakeholders.
