The Union Home Ministry has said it does not maintain a centralised list of volunteers enrolled under the cybercrime volunteer programme since the police is a “State subject” under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
Key takeaways
The Ministry, through its cybercrime grievance portal, aims to raise a group of “cybercrime volunteers” to flag “unlawful content” on the Internet.
A digital rights group, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), has said the programme enables a culture of surveillance and could create potential social distrust by encouraging civilians to report the online activities of other citizens
The programme was expected to include 500 volunteers, 200 “cyber awareness promoters” and 50 “cyber experts”.
Cybercrime Volunteers Programme is a constituent of The National Cybercrime Ecosystem Management Unit.
The unit is part of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) scheme launched by Union Home Minister in January 2020.
