Internet – A Broader Censorship Ruling Democracy

Introduction

The Internet is one of the most powerful instruments of the 21st century for increasing transparency in access to information, and for facilitating active citizen participation in building democratic societies. As such, facilitating access to the internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States. The hon'ble Supreme Court in a suo-moto writ petition (Prajwala, vs Union Of India)¹ had observed that the Government of India may frame necessary guidelines to eliminate child pornography, rape and gangrape imageries, videos and sites in content hosting platforms and other applications and further directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to apprise the timeline in respect of completing the process of notifying the new rules.