{"id":93223,"date":"2021-03-09T10:43:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T05:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=93223"},"modified":"2021-03-09T11:18:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T05:48:24","slug":"rise-of-lateral-surveillance-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rise-of-lateral-surveillance-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise of Lateral Surveillance in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The notification on the IT rules 2021 promotes lateral surveillance. It has given a new meaning to \u2018Citizen watch\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Introduction:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), launched the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program. It aims to allow citizens to register themselves as \u201cCyber Crime Volunteers\u2019\u2019 in the role of \u201cUnlawful Content Flaggers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The programme will help law enforcement agencies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in identifying, reporting and removal of illegal\/unlawful online content. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The programme will be launched all over the country. It is going to have its test run in Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What is lateral surveillance?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The surveillance in which citizens watch over one another is called lateral surveillance.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Main Features of lateral surveillance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is different from typical surveillance. In the typical surveillance, there is a vertical relationship between those being watched(citizenry) and those who are watching(the state).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lateral surveillance specifically ensures that the imbalance of power no longer exists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a form of community policing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The United States had the neighbourhood watch scheme. It increased community policing in the 1970s. With the introduction of technology and<\/span><b> the development of applications such as Citizen and Next door<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, monitoring of people and their behaviour has become easier.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>What is the extent of lateral surveillance in India, and what are its impacts?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state-sponsored lateral surveillance has been implemented in India earlier as well. For example, the C-Plan App in Uttar Pradesh launched for keeping a tab on anti-social elements. It is designed to receive inputs from certain identified individuals in villages across the State.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Firstly, these individuals have been given the responsibility<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to solve local problems such as providing information about boiling communal tensions or land disputes taking place in their own villages through the mobile application.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Secondly, the scope of lateral surveillance expanded during the pandemic lockdown<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For instance, the Karnataka government released a PDF with the names and addresses of around 19,000 international passengers who were quarantined in Bengaluru.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Thirdly, lateral surveillance may create a situation where privacy could get weakened<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the betterment of the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Fourthly, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can act as a tool for social exclusion. Lateral surveillance makes it easier to discriminate between those who do not conform to the social norms of the majority.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, the LGBT community in South Korea faced harsh comments from the homophobic majority when coronavirus cases were reported from the area where they resided.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fifthly, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it is harmful because it <\/span><b>creates an environment of hate, fear and constant suspicion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 This method gives people a duty of keeping an eye out for their own safety which results in an increase in fear of crime in society.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Sixthly, these threats will increase intolerance,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> prejudice, racism and casteism in our society. It will also violate the fundamental right to privacy right of free speech.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>What will be the outcome of the policy?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 also promotes lateral surveillance.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, there is a provision relating to the user-directed removal of non-consensual sexually explicit content. It will enable mediators to remove or disable access to the information within a short period of time of being notified by users.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This may result in taking down content and sharing user data without sufficient due process safeguards, violating the fundamental right to privacy and freedom of expression.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0 The notification on the IT rules 2021 promotes lateral surveillance. It has given a new meaning to \u2018Citizen watch\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Introduction:\u00a0 The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), launched the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program. It aims to allow citizens to register themselves as \u201cCyber Crime Volunteers\u2019\u2019 in the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rise-of-lateral-surveillance-in-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rise of Lateral Surveillance in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1361],"class_list":["post-93223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-sec_4","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}