[Divisha Dalal & Rajdeep Dutta are postgraduate students at the University of Bristol. This article argues that India’s intermediary liability framework under Section 79 of the IT Act and the Draft Amendments to the IT Rules represent outdated Web 2.0 solutions inadequate for addressing Web 3.0 deepfake threats, as they rely on reactive “actual knowledge” standards rather…
Algorithmic Manipulation Of Political Information: Assuring Accountability Through Listener Centric Approach
[Nandini Sharma is a fourth-year student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. This article argues that India’s legal framework fails to hold political actors accountable for deliberately manipulating algorithms to spread disinformation, instead placing disproportionate liability on platforms. The author proposes a listener-centric approach to freedom of expression that recognizes citizens’ rights to…
Securing Digital Evidence In India: A Case For Integrating Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts
[Sarah Unhelkar is a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at NLU Jodhpur. She is interested in Tech Law and Gender Studies. In this piece she argues that blockchain-based smart contracts are time and cost-efficient than the statutorily (BSA and IT Act) mandated Certificates, to verify the Chain of Custody. This is especially because smart contracts can…
India’s Soft Law Approach: Strategic Choice or Potential Oversight?
[Vrinda is a Third-Year Law student at the National Forensic Sciences University Gandhinagar. Thier areas of interest include Technology and Cyber Policy along with AI Governance.] INTRODUCTION The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) constituted a drafting committee in July 2025 to develop an AI governance framework for India. The framework is guided by two objectives: first, to…
Rights Without Courts: India’s Troubling DPDPA Model
[Adarsh Philip Roy is a PG student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata.] The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) establishes a framework for the collection, storage, processing, and ultimately the protection of personal data. On closer examination, however, this seemingly progressive law carries a controversial twist. Unlike other global data protection laws,…
Where Does AI Training Infringe, and Do Model Weights Count? Lessons emerging from Getty Images v. Stability AI
[This piece is co-authored by Siddhant Singh and Gurmehar Bedi, who are third-year students pursuing a B.A.LLB at National Law University, Jodhpur. In this piece the authors analyse the decision of Getty Images vs. Stability AI to deal with aspects of copyright in a technological context vis-à-vis safeguarding creative labour, and determining what the ruling’s…
Zero Days and Zero Rights? Legal Vacuum In India’s Cyber Incident Reporting Regime
[This article has been co-authored by Aayushman Verma and Amal Singh Patel, who hold an MS in Cyber Law & Information Security from the National Law Institute University, Bhopal. It examines India’s cyber incident reporting regime under CERT-In’s 2022 Directions, arguing that while it imposes strict six-hour reporting deadlines on companies, it fails to create…
A Critical Analysis of the Publicly Available Data Exemption in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act
[This article has been co-authored by Arpanjot Kaur and Shubham Thakare, third-year students at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru. It critically examines Section 3(c)(ii) of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which exempts “publicly available” personal data from protection, arguing that its vague language creates a massive loophole that undermines the…
The Cookie Consent Conundrum: Understanding EU’s Digital Privacy Law
[This article has been authored by Netraa Rathee, a 3rd-year student at NLIU, Bhopal. It traces the evolution of EU cookie regulation from the 2002 ePrivacy Directive’s opt-out model to today’s strict opt-in system, examining how consent requirements have tightened amid growing privacy concerns. The author explores enforcement challenges, consent fatigue, and the tension between…
Pixelated Perjury: Addressing India’s Regulatory Gaps in Tackling Deepfakes
[This article has been authored by Isha Katiyar, a fourth-year B.Com. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. It examines India’s legal framework for addressing deepfakes, highlighting gaps in the IT Act, BNS, and DPDP Act that fail to define or effectively regulate AI-generated media. The author proposes a comprehensive policy roadmap including…