## Content There is an unfortunate lesson in this. More corporations, especially Indian ones, must start taking digital rights issues seriously and stop thinking of them as "someone else's problem", or something that only civil society organisations will take up. And doing so in public as well, rather than relying only on 'negotiations behind closed-doors' is an important component. Whether we like it or not, signalling has an important role in policy discourse. More people should have been calling for greater transparency and scrutiny of government takedown orders, right from 2020 at least*. (Many have consistently have done so, but they need more people to back them up) *I say 2020 because that was when this press release regime appears to have been formalised, in a sense, but lack of transparency has been an issue with such orders from well before that. There is a need to be forward-looking on such matters, just because something doesn't directly impact someone today - doesn't mean it never will, especially when due-process and basic checks and balances are being ignored. And with that thought, I'll also point everyone in the direction of the draft digital personal data protection bill, which appears it is being rushed through despite being made worse (than its already imperfect predecessor). It may not appear to change the status quo significantly for companies, for now, but the seeming lack of safeguards & discretion that it affords the executive, will play a role - sooner or later, and the most significant period to state objections (now!) would have passed. ## Related Notes ## Colophon %% title:: Thread on Indian loap apps being banned - 2023-02-07 type:: [[output]] tags:: url:: file:: creator:: Prateek Waghre %% created:: [[2023-02-07]] status:: [[bean]]