We believe in the freedom of speech and expression

If India were to decide to block the Internet, he is the man who will pull the plug. Meet Gulshan Rai, 58, the head of the elite Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the coordinator of a committee on cyber law that has members from the ministries of home affairs, information and broadcasting, and law and justice. As coordinator, he can guide intermediaries (Internet gateways, telcos) to block a website.

Rai, who keeps a low profile and hardly interacts with the media, said in a rare interview that while the government is armed with discretionary powers—under the Information Technology (IT) Act—to block any website carrying malicious or offensive content, it has never exercised these. Indeed, he added, the government values freedom of expression.

Described as a hard man by colleagues, Rai, who has a doctoral degree in physics, was instrumental in drafting the IT Act, framing its policy on e-governance, and introducing MICR (magnetic ink character recognition, the numbers at the bottom of a cheque) in the banking system. Edited excerpts: You are the coordinator of the group responsible for dealing with malicious content on the Internet. How do you approach this?

We value the freedom of speech. We value the freedom of expression. We do not interfere there. Google itself says the number of requests received from India for blocking (websites) is much less than the (number of) requests received from many other countries. We have reasonable restrictions. Article 19 talks about reasonable restrictions. We have a blasphemy law, which is weaker in many other countries. We have a pornography law, which is not there in many countries. In spite of so many laws, our requests are few. So where is the question of interfering?

• • Download:
  • • We believe in the freedomof speech and expression.pdf

• Link: http://www.dsci.in/sites/default/files/We%20believe%20in%2 ...