Indian Government Proposes Vast New Powers to Suppress Internet Content

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Indian Government Proposes Vast New Powers to Suppress Internet Content

By CircleID Reporter
February 14, 2019, 7:41 pm PST Views: 11,120 Add Comment

The Indian government has proposed a bill to suppress online content in the country, increase control over messaging and trace messages to their origin resulting in citizens uproar comparing the proposed rules to those of China and Russia. New York Times’ Vindu Goel reports: “Under the proposed rules, Indian officials could demand that Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and others remove posts or videos that they deem libelous, invasive of privacy, hateful or deceptive. Internet companies would also have to build automated screening tools to block Indians from seeing “unlawful information or content.” Another provision would weaken the privacy protections of messaging services like WhatsApp so that the authorities could trace messages back to their original senders.” Tech gians including Mircrosoft and Facebook are fighting back.

— “In a filing with the ministry last week, Microsoft said that complying with India’s new standards would be “‘mpossible from the process, legal and technology point of view.’”

— “WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and has some 250 million active users in India, said it could not meet the proposed requirement that it trace viral messages to their origin without destroying the privacy protections that are core to the service.”

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By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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