As per news reports a coordinated effort is underway by the Government of India to strengthen its stance on banning mobile apps. According to a senior government official and other sources in the government, the GoI is planning to come out with guidelines, flouting which any app can be banned. Such wide scale banning would undermine nuanced policy approaches for protecting the digital rights of the citizens. We have some alternatives and suggestions to protect users, innovation and the larger national interest. So, we wrote to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) urging them to develop a transparent cybersecurity policy, and asking them to expedite the work on the Personal Data Protection Bill.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/app-ban-guidelines-policy-recommendations-to-meity/