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Apar Gupta
Indian lawyer and digital rights activist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Apar Gupta is a lawyer, founder and writer on democracy and technology from India.[1] In 2019 he was elected as an Ashoka Fellow for, "creating a model for digital rights advocacy in the country that is driven by the public, for the public," as the co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation.[2]
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Education
Gupta was born and raised in New Delhi, India. He attended Mount St Mary's School, obtained his B.A. (LLB) (Hons) degree from Amity Law School, and a postgraduate degree from the Columbia University School of Law.[3]
Law Practice
Gupta started out as a commercial litigator in the law firm of Karanjawala & Co., later merged his own firm Accendo Law Partners with Advani & Co. in 2010.[4] He was included in the Forbes India 30 under 30 list in 2014.[5]
Gupta resigned in 2015 to start his own law chamber[6] where he was a lawyer in notable civil liberties and constitutional cases that have digital or technology issues including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (Section 66A),[7] Subramanium Swamy v. Union of India (criminal defamation),[8] Gaurav Sureshbhai Vyas v. State of Gujarat (Internet Shutdowns),[9] Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India (Right to Privacy[10] and Aadhaar[11]), PUCL v. Union of India (Surveillance Reforms),[12] and Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (Internet Shutdowns).[13]
He has represented the India Chapter of Friday's for Future when their website was blocked under terrorism charges.[14]
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Digital Rights Advocacy
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Perspective
He is a co-founder of the SaveTheInternet.in campaign on net neutrality[15] and SaveOurPrivacy.in campaign for data protection and surveillance reforms.[16] After his work on the Section 66A case,[17] he co-authored a study to document compliance with the judgement to discover ongoing cases which continued unconstitutionally against the Supreme Court judgement. This was called, "shocking" by the Supreme Court.[18]
Gupta is the co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and was appointed its first executive director from 2018[19] till November, 2023.[20] He resumed the role of IFF's Founder Director in November, 2024.[21] For his work at IFF he was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2019[22] and the Next Now Fellowship.[23] Gupta also filed a case as a petitioner against the Ministry of Home Affairs for disclosure of statistical data on surveillance in India.[24] He has deposed before a parliamentary committee on the DNA Bill[25] and before a commission inquiring into the use of Pegasus.[26]
On May 31, 2023, he presented Item #7 at the Annual meeting of shareholders of META Platforms[27] titled as, "Shareholder Proposal Regarding Report on Allegations of Political Entanglement and Content Management Biases in India"[28] that was defeated with 5% votes in its favour.[29]
Writing and Lectures
Gupta authored the Commentary on the Information Technology Act which is published by LexisNexis.[30] He writes regularly on digital and democratic rights in leading newspapers and is quoted as an expert in India.[31] Gupta is published in reviewed journals like the Indian Journal of Law and Technology, Seminar and the India International Center Quarterly.[32] He has delivered the 11th Krishna Raj Memorial Lecture[33] at the 37th Annual Dr. Ramanatham Memorial Meeting (with Jinee Lokaneeta) and also started a youtube channel - Apar 1984 to take forward the discourse on digital policy.[34]
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Awards and recognition
See also
References
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