Image by Naveed Ahmed.

As the Indian government is confronted with a global snooping scandal with over 300 journalists, politicians and bureaucrats on the list of those surveilled by the state, the Modi government had intensified its bid to rampage through the country’s latest Internet Technology laws. 

While the central government claims that the new laws are aimed at quelling the crisis of misinformation in the country by targeting sources, social media giants, alternative media platforms and privacy activists claim that the laws will bring them under direct government oversight giving enormous power to the executive to crackdown on privacy and dissent–leading to increased censorship.