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Demanding the withdrawal of rules concerning the safe harbour provisions in the IT Act for intermediaries such as Facebook and Twitter, the CPI(M) alleged that the Centre is undermining security protocols to provide government access to people’s messages. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) said in a statement on Friday that such a step is a dangerous and retrograde measure.
The party said the rules, notified in February, will strengthen the architecture of a surveillance-State violating the right to privacy of citizens. “The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands the withdrawal of these provisions,” the statement added.
The notification requires all intermediary platforms providing messaging services to identify the “first originator” of a message trail and furnish this on demand to either the Court or the government, the statement added.
“Facebook/WhatsApp has pointed out that this means breaking the security of the existing messaging protocol, and therefore of all those who use WhatsApp. This has been endorsed by technical experts. Weakening security protocols violate user privacy and increase vulnerability to hacking for criminal purposes as well,” the party said.
It said Facebook must revisit and withdraw its weakening the security of WhatsApp in its Business Applications. “In India, Facebook wants to access WhatsApp data; while in the EU it complies with the EU’s directive on user privacy and not provide such access,” the statement said.
The CPI(M) accused the Centre of using the Delhi Police to intimidate Twitter for flagging various BJP leaders’ tweets as manipulated media. “The CPI(M) condemns the BJP government’s partisan use of the IT Ministry and the police raids on Twitter’s offices as acts of blatant intimidation,” it said.
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