For over 20 years, telcos in India have argued that messaging companies like WhatsApp must be regulated. Their marketing campaign ‘identical service, identical guidelines’ might need lastly borne fruit with the brand new Draft Telecom Invoice.
Final week, the Division of Telecommunication launched the Indian Telecom Invoice 2022, which can carry over-the-top (OTT) platforms similar to WhatsApp, Zoom, Netflix and others throughout the ambit of telecom companies.
“Based mostly on the session course of, we’ll create the ultimate draft, which can then undergo the committee processes of the Parliament. Then it has to go to Parliament. I see a timeline of 6-10 months, however we aren’t in a rush,” telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated.
The brand new Invoice will overhaul the present framework, which is ruled by three totally different acts – The Indian Telegraph Act 1885, The Wi-fi Telegraph Act 1933 and The Telegraph Wires Illegal Possession Act 1950.
So, what does the brand new Invoice imply for WhatsApp?
Finish of WhatsApp Encryption?
In 2016, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, introduced that its messages had been totally encrypted, and solely the person and the individual he/she is speaking with, can learn these messages.
“Finish-to-end encryption ensures solely you and the individual you’re speaking with can learn or hear to what’s despatched, and no person in between, not even WhatsApp,” the corporate says.
WhatsApp makes use of an open-source encryption customary from Open Whisper Techniques, additionally utilized by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Nevertheless, the brand new Draft Telecom Invoice will give the Central authorities the facility to intercept any messages despatched by WhatsApp in issues associated to nationwide safety.
As per Part 24 (2) of the Invoice, “on the prevalence of any public emergency or within the curiosity of public security, the central authorities or a state authorities or any officer specifically authorised on this behalf by the central or a state authorities, might” intercept the encrypted messages and calls made on WhatsApp or different comparable functions.
Identical service, identical guidelines
One of many arguments repeatedly made by the telcos is with regard to licensing and laws. Whereas the telcos should clear a number of hurdles when it comes to licensing and are ruled by quite a few legal guidelines, web service suppliers are simply in a position to bypass all of those.
Specialists consider clubbing OTT companies with telcos is incorrect. Whereas telcos personal and handle the entire infrastructure layer, WhatsApp merely makes use of the web, however doesn’t management it.
“Arguments by telcos calling for ‘identical service identical guidelines’ are misconceived given the inherent structural variations between telecommunications service suppliers and OTT gamers – similar to entry to spectrum, means to interconnect with [public telephone networks], use of numbering assets and so forth,” the Broadband India Discussion board stated in a submitting with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
As soon as the Invoice comes into pressure, WhatsApp could be required to use for a licence to proceed providing its companies in India. WhatsApp may also should ask its customers to fill out a Know Your Buyer (KYC) type for them to proceed utilizing its companies. As per the Invoice, anybody who offers incorrect KYC particulars might face imprisonment for as much as one yr. In response to Vaishnaw, this can assist curb cyber fraud.
The KYC necessities will not be simply restricted to WhatsApp; even if you’re utilizing Google Meet, Zoom, Netflix, Gmail and even Tinder, you might need to fill out a KYC type.
WhatsApp’s feud with the federal government
The brand new Telecom Invoice just isn’t the primary try by the federal government to attempt to tame WhatsApp. In 2021, when the brand new IT guidelines got here into pressure, WhatsApp took the Indian authorities to courtroom as the brand new guidelines mandated social media platforms to hint the origin of the messages despatched on their platforms.
A WhatsApp spokesperson stated that mandating social media platforms to hint chats essentially undermines folks’s proper to privateness. In response, later that yr, the federal government filed an affidavit stating that “the constitutionality of a provision of regulation can’t be challenged by a overseas business entity on the bottom of it being violative of Article 19”.
Whereas there’s nonetheless time for the brand new Telecom Invoice to return into impact, it might be fascinating to see which course the litigation between WhatsApp vs authorities takes because it might have implications on the way forward for WhatsApp and the way it operates in India.
Ploy for surveillance
Severe considerations about customers’ proper to privateness have already been raised by totally different stakeholders of the trade and members of civil society. “The Draft Telecom Invoice just isn’t solely a trigger for disappointment, however alarm. It maintains colonial management and visualises residents as topics by ignoring constitutional developments on privateness and free speech,” Apar Gupta, the chief director on the Web Freedom Basis, stated.
Over time, WhatsApp has emerged as a serious supply of communication by people in addition to companies all around the world. Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, acknowledged in 2020 that greater than 100 billion messages are despatched every day on WhatsApp. As of June 2021, there have been round 470.1 million WhatsApp customers in India, as per Statista.
Variety of WhatsApp customers as of June 2021
(Supply: Statista)
Vaishnaw has clarified that the telecom Invoice doesn’t pressure the decryption of messages although there’s a provision for his or her interception. Nevertheless, not everyone seems to be satisfied.
Totally different civil teams from Entry Now and Web Freedom Basis have argued that the Invoice is an assault on end-to-end encryption. They consider that regulation enforcement authorities might spy on residents beneath the garb of defending them from cyber frauds.
Additional, the Invoice grants the federal government the fitting to close down the web, which is once more a blatant assault on human rights, together with the rights to free expression, data, and freedom of meeting, civil rights group Entry Now stated.
Additional, KYC for utilizing companies similar to WhatsApp or Zoom would imply customers can not use these companies anonymously. Given a person enjoys the fitting to freedom of expression and proper to privateness, it ought to entail anonymity on the web.
