IT Minister says rule doesn’t violate privacy, will only be used as last resort in some cases. But Congress’ Jairam says recommendations were only for child porn cases.
Asserting that govt welcomes criticism and recognises the right to privacy, IT Minister Prasad also said WhatsApp users have nothing to fear about the new rules.
The plea states that the 'tracing provision' in Indian govt's IT rules for social media intermediaries violates the rights to privacy and free speech of millions of WhatsApp users.
In a statement, the IT Ministry termed WhatsApp's last moment challenge to the intermediary guidelines as an unfortunate attempt to prevent norms from coming into effect.
In new IT rules, govt calls for social media firms with large user bases to enable, when required, identification of original sender of messages, a move that breaks privacy protections.
IT Act provides social media companies protection from liability for third party content on their websites. But companies must comply with govt's deadline for new IT rules, which ends today.
The IT Ministry directed Whatsapp to withdraw its new privacy policy because it discriminates against Indian users by putting unfair terms and conditions, government sources said.
WhatsApp, opposing the contention, said it was conforming to the laws and added that its policy has come into effect from 15 May, but it won’t be deleting accounts right away.
WhatsApp further clarified that it won't delete the users' accounts if they haven't accepted the update but said that its existing policy related to inactive users will apply.
There are people inside and outside of Iran who do not feel sorry for President Raisi’s death. Some of them are trying to take advantage of this tragedy to pursue their own political goals.
Petrol & diesel prices have barely changed since June 2022, even though oil prices have fallen 28% since then. This has boosted profitability of OMCs and dividend payouts to govt.
ThePrint had reported earlier this month that while theaterisation is the ultimate goal, set to be rolled out one year from now, the focus is on structured jointness initiatives by 2024-end.
Discussion about outcome of Lok Sabha polls continues to boil in cauldron of expectations only from BJP. Now reverse this equation, what if we asked about the performance of the 'loser'?
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