Data Privacy Politics & State vs Corporations: Social media platforms’ fight against the Indian Government
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging giant has announced that it won’t restrict the functionality of the app for users who don’t accept its new privacy policy. Last week the Ministry of Electronics & Technology had sent a notice to WhatsApp calling their new policy “unfair”, the notice further stated that if the response is not satisfactory they could face legal action. WhatsApp has responded to the Government of India’s letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains their highest priority. They also said they won’t comply until the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill becomes law. WhatsApp stated that they will continue to remind their users about the new privacy policy from time to time.
On 25th February the government came up with the IT Rules, 2021 meant to monitor and regulate social media platforms requires the social media companies to have officers for reporting monthly activities and remove unlawful content from platforms. To comply with these rules, the government set a deadline of 26th May. If the social media companies don't comply they will face legal action the government stated.
That is the reason for the recent social media murmur about Facebook, Twitter and Instagram being banned. First of all, they won't be banned. It is very unlikely. Secondly, even if they do not comply with the government they will most probably be temporarily blocked or only face legal action notices.
Kazim Rizvi, Director of The Dialogue, told The Quint that India can ban any app, although banning WhatsApp won’t be the right thing to do as it will affect India-US relations. (24 May)
Last week Twitter flagged one of Sambit Patra’s tweets as manipulated media. Indian Twitter users were furious and that led to the Delhi police knocking on Twitter India’s doors yesterday on the 24th. Delhi Police stated that it was routine.
By routine, it was a proxy statement. Critics of the new IT Rules have said that it would change the internet structure of India and Forbes India reporting that “there are concerns that the (PDP) Bill gives the government blanket powers to access citizens’ data.” Recently, the Indian government asked (threatened legal action) Twitter to suspend more than 500 accounts that were linked to promoting tweets regarding the 2021 Farmers Protests. But then re-suspended accounts only disabling them in India. Twitter also released a blog post regarding the government’s requests and legal actions against their company.
We remain committed to safeguarding the health of the conversation occurring on Twitter, and strongly believe that the Tweets should flow. — Twitter (Feb 2021)
Since then and lately, there has been a lot of talk about freedom of expression. With opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi slamming the government’s decisions regarding their policies, stating that the policies favour the government. And most of them do. Compliance with social media companies has always been a grey area. They have the power of conversation, the Indian government cannot just endorse a new platform and call it the new Twitter or the new WhatsApp just because they don't like it. Especially in a democratic country like ours. Of course in China, there's not even a question of these things happening because everything is state-owned and monitored.
There are many questions regarding the obscurity of privacy laws. The government always says it stands by their citizens right to privacy but also have questionable intentions and actions regarding it. Misuse of the new rules will lead to the government taking down posts that are considered hostile to them or not in favour of, which the government has done in past and is also currently doing by calling it ‘hate speech and ‘interference’.
In a few days, we will learn about the developments the social media companies make or if they fail to do so, we will learn about the government’s actions regarding the same. There are many ways this thing could turn. One of them is the European way. WhatsApp users in Europe can opt-out of the new privacy policy owing to the laws in the EU called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which shield them from sharing data from Facebook or grant them the power to say no to WhatsApp’s new terms of service. The GDPR’s primary aim is to give individuals control over their personal data.
“When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”
― David Brin
