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India Wants Tech Platforms To Break Encryption And Remove Content The Government Thinks Is 'Unlawful' (buzzfeednews.com)
India's government wants to make it mandatory for platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Google, to remove content it deems "unlawful" within 24 hours of notice, and create "automated tools" to "proactively identify and remove" such material. From a report: It also wants tech companies to build in a way to trace the source of the content, which would require platforms like WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) published [PDF] the proposed rules on its website following a report on Monday by The Indian Express revealing the government's proposal to modify the country's primary IT law to work them in. The report comes days after India's government seemingly authorized 10 federal agencies to snoop into every computer in the country last week. The proposed measures have provoked concerns from privacy activists who claim they would threaten free speech and enable mass surveillance.
[...] If India does work these rules into its IT law, it would have precedent: Earlier this month, Australia passed a controversial encryption bill that would require technology companies to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications, saying that it was essential to stop terrorists and criminals who rely on secure messaging apps to communicate.
[...] If India does work these rules into its IT law, it would have precedent: Earlier this month, Australia passed a controversial encryption bill that would require technology companies to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications, saying that it was essential to stop terrorists and criminals who rely on secure messaging apps to communicate.
indian culture is VERY authoritarian. do NOT break rules, FOLLOW orders and fall into place, citizen.
I predict nothing good will come from this. *maybe* the US will pull back from all the h1b bullshit, but I doubt it since the h1b crap is all about profit and profit always comes before privacy and even long-term security.
every indian I've met in the bay area, over the last 25 or so years, has been more republican oriented than democrat. they will certainly do what they're told, not step out of line and hoping they also get some of that top-down power.
no, I don't think this will end well at all.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
If India (or any country) wants Facebook (or any big social media platform) to do something stupid like break encryption or censor content, Facebook could rally the impacted citizens by blocking all access. On the home page or app startup screen put something like: "Your government is making an unreasonable request, because of this no citizens of India may use Facebook until this changes." Imagine if instead of removing search results for "objectionable" content Google just said, "Fine, if you don't want your citizens looking at this, your citizens can't use Google at all, and we are telling your citizens why."
biggaijin observed:
It looks like the world's largest democracy is coming into some bumpy times. Clearly, the UK does want to control its people just as Orwell predicted, but until now the Indian government has not been visibly interested in this sort of control. It's ver sad, and very bad news for the people of India.
Modi's government has displayed repressive and authoritarian tendencies from day one. Luckily, as Al Jazeera reports, his Bharatiya Janata Party lost 56 seats in parliament in local elections in the northern states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh in recent months. That's a significant swing in popular support from last spring, and it may mean India is getting as tired of Modi as, for instance, Hungary is of Viktor Orban ...
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