In affidavit submitted Wednesday, Centre said WhatsApp was indulging in 'anti-user' practices and forcing them to accept the updated policy that had earlier raised data privacy concerns.
Whether it's Modi govt's new IT Rules or Twitter-Facebook-Whatsapp championing user privacy, both sides have sidelined users and claimed the ability to represent their rights.
India may end up somewhere between a Chinese-style firewall & a Western model of free internet. Fate of WhatsApp’s legal challenge will go some way in tracing the landing spot.
At the heart of WhatsApp's petition against the Modi govt's new IT rules is the right to privacy, and this case could prove to be an important test of its application in India.
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.
Compulsion magnifies the risk of function creep. Future updates could quietly expand the app’s capabilities or enable background telemetry far beyond users’ expectations.
Order for 87 MALE drones will be split between 2 Indian firms in 64:36 ratio to ensure there are 2 independent manufacturing lines with at least 60% indigenous components.
The India-South Africa series-defining fact is the catastrophic decline of Indian red ball cricket where a visiting team can mock us with the 'grovel' word.
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