(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
An Indian delegation to a UN conference on cybercrime in Vienna
has proposed the use of measures that are almost identical to those
in the controversial Section 66A of the Indian Information
Technology Act, which was struck down as unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court in 2015, Trend reports citing The Print.
The second session of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee (AHC)
has been convened to negotiate a proposed UN treaty on“countering
the use of information and communications technologies for criminal
purposes”.
The Indian delegation — comprising officials from the ministries
of home, external affairs, and information technology — had sent
their proposal on 12 May and then presented it at the Vienna
meeting Wednesday.
However, some points in the proposal seem lifted word-for-word
from Section 66A of the IT Act, which was struck down by the
Supreme Court because it was violative of the right to freedom of
speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian
Constitution.
Among the 13 sections of the Indian delegation's Vienna
proposal, subcategory 4(d) — on“offensive messages through
communication service etc”— is an almost exact copy of Section 66A
curbs.
It recommends that a state should adopt“legislative measures”
to criminalise information that is deemed to be“grossly offensive”
or of a“menacing character”.
The same goes for sending out information,“known to be false”,
for the purposes of“causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger,
obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred
or ill will…”
Finally, any electronic communication sent out“for the purpose
of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead
the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages”
should be punishable by law, India's contribution to the AHC
session says.
The proposal has riled digital activists.
“Terms like 'grossly offensive' are vague and give the
government power to interpret it arbitrarily and misuse it. The UPA
government did it when it had 66A,” digital activist and
savetheinternet co-founder Nikhil Pahwa told ThePrint.
ThePrint tried contacting all the ministries involved in the
proposal via email and phone calls but did not receive a reply
until the publication of this report. If a response is received,
this report will be updated.
Because of Section 66, several artists, journalists, and
students had found themselves on the wrong side of the law due to
their social media posts criticising various leaders.
However, despite being struck down by the apex court, the law
has not died a quick death. As reported last year, since being
scrapped, it has been invoked not only within police stations, but
also in cases before trial courts across India — a fact described
as shocking by the Supreme Court.
The Union government subsequently issued an advisory to states
and Union territories urging compliance with the 2015 order, also
citing earlier missives issued in this regard.
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