The institute shockingly, failed to intervene. Even worse, the names of the signatory students who had signed the letter was made public. One masters’ student, who was among those instrumental in getting students together to sign the protest letter, has even been arrested!

It is a 23-year-old student belonging to a Dalit community from Latur district was arrested on January 22. This arrest took place after a senior student filed an FIR against him for putting out a status on WhatsApp against the frenzy created all around on the consecration day. In this post, the student took a critical view of the “celebration.” This was a copied post from another fellow student. In fact, many students had put out social media statuses in protest of the ongoing celebrations on the IIPS campus. However only this one student was singled out and arrested

Some students that The Wire spoke to say that the post was a mere excuse. “The said student would have become a target anyway. Many students and even the administration were not happy with the student and his friends’ endeavour of organising students against the Ram Mandir celebration,” said one of the students, who too had signed the letter sent to the director.

In the letter, the students have written: “IIPS is a multicultural campus annually organising various celebrations which includes Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, Christmas, etc. which epitomises the promise of grooming a secular young generation who can contribute prosperity to a diversified nation-state like India. But the celebration of Ram temple consecration is a pure act of political agenda orchestrated by the various outfits, which can harm the secular sentiments of students while celebrating in an institute like IIPS, where such celebrations cannot be done.” In the letter, the students sought restrictions on celebrations on campus and said the celebration had the potential of “further deepening the divisions among student fraternity by spreading hate and fear”. The Wire has a copy of the letter.

 The letter was overlooked. But after the student’s arrest, those who had submitted the letter were even forced and bullied into writing an apology. Quite contrary to the concerns raised in the earlier letter, the students this time round were made to apologise for “hurting sentiments of those celebrating the Ram temple consecration.” Both the letters were addressed to the director.

Not only is such an arrest of a student from campus is unusual as normally, the police never enter the space without the institute administration’s permission. Instead of immediately criminalising the issue, whenever there is such a dispute between students, a complaint is made first with the institute before escalating it with the police. But here, the complainant from a second-year master’s student, went directly to Govandi police station. It was also entertained. The student was booked under Section 153 (A) and 295 (A) of the Indian Penal Code for “creating enmity between religion”.

The police in the remand application claimed that the student had offended “Hindu students with his WhatsApp post.” The student was arrested and kept in police custody for two days. On the third day as he was sent to Arthur Road central jail, a local court granted him bail.

The student is back on campus. The Wire even reached out to him for comment but he did not want to speak.

As an aftermath of the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, students’ organisations like the Ambedkar Student Association (ASA) have been disbanded. A student, who was a part of the association, said that soon after the arrest, students dropped out and their WhatsApp group was deleted. “We are being targeted for our political understanding and assertion. Most of us come from poor family backgrounds and we don’t have the wherewithal to fight the right-wing forces. So, students just decided to dismantle the group,” a student who was earlier associated with the ASA said.

Apart from this institute, even the prestigious Film and Television Institute (FTII) saw violence break out over protests against the January 22 Ayodhya event. Though the issue there was some of the students wanting to show Anand Patwardhan’s documentary Ram ke Naam, here too goons from outside somehow got to know, were allowed inside the campus and in fact indulged in violence against FTII students.

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The post Mumbai: Student Arrested After Asking Admin to Curb Ram Temple Celebrations on Campus appeared first on SabrangIndia.

An Ahmedabad-based teacher, identified as Manisha Bhavsar, working at RH Kapadia school was arrested for allegedly posting a derogatory and offensive statement about Muslims. 

According to a report in the Indian Express, Bhavsar was a member of many WhatsApp groups where the derogatory posts were shared. Police told the media that an FIR was lodged at Cyber Crime police station on Tuesday. This was after a complaint was filed that a WhatsApp account holder had posted an update “which could hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.”

Police mounted a technical surveillance and investigation, identified and nabbed the accused Bhavsar from her residence. According to the report, Manisha Bhavsar has been a school teacher for 10 years and has taught in more than eight schools. She had recently joined the RH Kapadia school. 

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The post Ahmedabad: ‘Derogatory’ posts on WhatsApp land teacher in trouble appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a body-blow to the Surveillance State, the Kerala High Court has ruled that the admin (administrator) of a Whatsapp group is not vicariously liable for an objectionable post made by a group member.

In an order dated February 23, 2022, the court said, “A vicarious criminal liability can be fastened only
by reason of a provision of a statute and not otherwise. In the absence of a special penal law creating vicarious liability, an Admin of a WhatsApp group cannot be held liable for the objectionable post by a group member.”

Though this order was in connection with a case where a Whatsapp group member had posted a child pornography clip on the group, that led to the group admin also being implicated in a POCSO case, the HC order has far-reaching ramification in cases related to Whatsapp groups being used by activists and dissenters. Privacy advocates, digital rights groups and  internet freedom activists have pointed out how one malicious post by a rogue group member ought not to be deemed enough to implicate the group admin, as it can become a handy tool for the Surveillance State to trap and implicate dissenters.

What is Vicarious Liability?

The court, in its order recorded, “Vicarious liability is a form of a strict, secondary liability that arises under the common law doctrine of agency; respondent superior – the responsibility of the superior for the acts of their subordinate, or, in a broader sense, the responsibility imposed on one person for the wrongful actions of another person. Such a liability arises usually because of some or the other legal relationship between the two. This often occurs in the context of civil law—for example, in employment cases.”

It further clarified, “There is no law by which an Admin of any messaging service can be held liable for a post made by a member in the group. A WhatsApp Admin cannot be an intermediary under the IT Act. He does not receive or transmit any record or provide any service with respect to such record. There is no master-servant or a principal-agent relationship between the Admin of a WhatsApp group and its members.”

Brief background of the case

The matter dealt with a case where the Petitioner had created a Whatsapp group titled FRIENDS. On March 29, 2020, a member had posted a video depicting child pornography to the group. On June 15, 2020 the Ernakulam police registered a case against the poster of the video for offences under
Sections 67B (a)(b) and (d) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (for short, ‘the IT Act’) and Sections 13, 14 and 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012 (for short, ‘the POCSO Act’). He was thus the primary accused in the case. However, the Petitioner was also arrayed as Accused No. 2 in the case that was pending as SC No.61/2021 at the Additional Sessions (Cases Relating to Atrocities and Sexual Violence Against Women and Children) Court, Ernakulam.

That’s when the Petitioner moved court to have the charges against him be dropped. In light of the court’s conclusion with respect to vicarious liability, the proceedings against the Petitioners will now be quashed.

Judge Dr. Kauser Edappagath ruled, “There is nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner has published or transmitted or caused to be published or transmitted in any electronic form the alleged obscene material or he browsed or downloaded the said material or, in any way, facilitated abusing children online so as to attract Sections 67B (a), (b) or (d) of the IT Act. Similarly, the prosecution has no case that the petitioner used children in any form of media for his sexual gratification or used them for pornographic purpose or stored, for commercial purpose, any child pornographic material in order to attract Sections 13, 14 or 15 of the POCSO Act.”

The judge further recorded in the order, “Since the basic ingredients of the offences alleged are altogether absent as against the petitioner, I am of the view that it is a fit case where the extra ordinary jurisdiction vested with this Court under Section 482 of Cr.P.C could be invoked.”

The court finally ruled, “For the reasons stated above, the entire proceedings in SC No.61/2021 at the Additional Sessions (Cases Relating to Atrocities and Sexual Violence Against Women and Children)
Court, Ernakulam as against the petitioner is hereby quashed.”

The entire order may be read here: 

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The post Whatsapp group Admin not vicariously liable for posts by members: Kerala HC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A curious video is doing the rounds. Titled “How will India become Lebanon | The game of Demography and population explosion” the ‘talk is by Ananta Sarga productions, anchored by its co-founder Varun Kulkarni, and uploaded on their  Breathing History youtube channel. It begins with a conclusion that “what happened with Lebanon will happen with India” which the anchor only refers to as Bharat, like most Hindutva groups have instructed their followers to do.

“If we dont wake up in time there is nothing stopping Bharat from becoming another Lebanon,” he says, “explaining” how in the 50s the Maronite Chritians were in majority there and that it along with Israel were the only two democracies in the area. He stresses that these were also the only two “non-Muslim countries” of the area adding, “You can reach whatever conclusions you want from that.” He goes on to trace that all “refugees” including Christians and Muslims thronged to Lebanon. There is of course a dramatic sound track backing his claims of how “terrorist organsaitons like PLO” were doing their “politics under a Leftist banner” and projected themselves as “victims”. He further says, “I hope you can see the scary similarity” and goes on to claim “internal population explosion” and “refugees” for the rise in Muslim population. 

He then claims that “India is headed the Lebanon way.” He says that “they let refugees in”, and ‘explains’ in a simple way how ‘this was like a langar’ but changed the demography and “attacks” began. He claims this is happening in India and “Assam population” is an example, and claimed how “eight states in India” now “do not have Hindus as majority.” He says India “has not understood the demography game” and that Indian Hindus are not paying attention to the “cultural existential issues” and are easily diverted. He claims that Bangladesh and Pakistan are supporting the “illegal refugees”. 

The man then concludes his communal monologue by appreciating the Hindutva groups who are “awakening” and saying things like “don’t teach us how to celebrate our festivals”, perhaps hinting at the concerns raised over Diwali related pollution etc. “Watch this video to understand (hopefully, realise) how scary and close India could be to become the next Lebanon. There are other European countries falling for the same too,” he claims in the description, adding an alarmist “Time to WAKE UP and do something about it” call to action.

However, his hate claims, and rumour mongering stands busted as ground realities showcase a completely different story. As detailed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website The Lebanese Constitution since 1926 was amended several times – in 1929, 1943, 1947, and 1990. “The most recent 1990 Constitution (found here in English, Arabic, and French) provides for an equal distribution of Christians and Muslims in both the Cabinet and the Parliament.” The Constitution “may be revised upon the request of the president or the parliament. A two-thirds majority of seats is needed to initiate amendment procedures (Articles 76 and 77)” and is also “supplemented by the 2008 Doha Agreement (English text), which ended an eighteen-month political deadlock and eventual violent outbreak between the Western and Saudi-backed majority and its pro-Syrian opposition.”

While historians and legal experts may bust the claims made by propaganda channels such as this which aim at creating a communal narrative, it is a cause of worry that such channels are allowed to air unchecked by Youtube. It is being shared by many groups. Anant Sarga productions is founded by engineers turned ‘fimmakers’ Preetham K Tiwari, and Varun Kulkarni, who anchors the show. Breathing History and Ananta Sarga specialise in a stylised presentation of the Hindutva narratives on many subjects. History, facts and objectivity are the top casualties of such projects.

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The post Hate Watch: ‘India becoming Lebanon’ propaganda video aims to create panic and hate appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The deadline for social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp, to comply with provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 ended on Tuesday night. But now, Whatsapp has moved Delhi High Court against one of the key requirements listed by the government in the February 25, 2021 notification.

The contentious provision requires “identification of first originator of information” and Whatsapp, a popular messaging platform owned by Facebook says that this will require them to collect and store more information about information shared by billions of users daily and this traceability clause would hamper privacy of users, placing them under virtual surveillance.

Traceability and end-to-end encryption

Whatsapp promises end-to-end encryption and the traceability clause would be contradictory to it.

“WhatsApp deployed end-to-end encryption throughout our app in 2016, so that calls, messages, photos, videos, and voice notes to friends and family are only shared with the intended recipient and no one else (not even us). “Traceability” is intended to do the opposite by requiring private messaging services like WhatsApp to keep track of who-said-what and who-shared-what for billions of messages sent every day,” said Whatsapp in a statement.

Referring to requirements laid down by the Government of India without specifically naming it, Whatsapp said, “Some governments are seeking to force technology companies to find out who sent a particular message on private messaging services. This concept is called “traceability.” Technology and privacy experts have determined that traceability breaks end-to-end encryption and would severely undermine the privacy of billions of people who communicate digitally.” It added, “Reasonable and proportionate regulations for an increasingly digital world are important, but eroding privacy for everyone, violating human rights, and putting innocent people at risk is not the solution. WhatsApp is committed to doing all we can to protect the privacy of people’s personal messages, which is why we join others in opposing traceability.”

Whatsapp further explained, “Traceability requires messaging services to store information that can be used to ascertain the content of people’s messages, thereby breaking the very guarantees that end-to-end encryption provides. In order to trace even one message, services would have to trace every message. That’s because there is no way to predict which message a government would want to investigate in the future.” Then it went on to use the dreaded S-word: Surveillance. It said, “In doing so, a government that chooses to mandate traceability is effectively mandating a new form of mass surveillance. To comply, messaging services would have to keep giant databases of every message you send, or add a permanent identity stamp — like a fingerprint — to private messages with friends, family, colleagues, doctors, and businesses.”

The Indian Express quoted a Whatsapp spokesperson as saying, “Requiring messaging apps to ‘trace’ chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy.” Further, the messaging platform said, “We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users. In the meantime, we will also continue to engage with the Government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us.”

The February 25 Ethics Code

SabrangIndia had previously reported on how the provisions mentioned in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 notified on February 25, 2021, had raised suspicions of surveillance and censorship, especially given how MEITy had worded its February 25 press release about the notification about the Ethics Code. “Social media platforms welcome to do business in India but they need to follow the Constitution and laws of India,” it had said, adding, “These Rules are a fine blend of liberal touch with gentle self-regulatory framework. It works on the existing laws and statues of the country which are applicable to content whether online or offline.”

Referring to the traceability clause, the notification had said, “Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years.”

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) at that time justified the code saying it had come up with these guidelines “amidst growing concerns around lack of transparency, accountability and rights of users related to digital media and after elaborate consultation with the public and stakeholders.” 

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The post Whatsapp moves Delhi HC challenging GoI’s traceability clause appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Delhi High Court has denied bail to a murder accused in the Delhi violence case, who was allegedly involved in 8 other cases related to the February 2020 violence. The bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed that the allegations levelled were grave, and the petitioner’s involvement in the riots was alleged by witnesses and if released on bail, he could threaten them.

The petitioner, Pankaj Sharma, has been in judicial custody since March 2020 and challenged the trial court order that rejected his bail, on the ground that the trial court ignored material facts and evidence on record. The case was of murder of one Hashim Ali who was found in Pulia area, and upon his post mortem it was revealed that death was caused due to blunt force impact on head and abdomen.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the charge sheet filed before the trial court does not reflect ‘grave suspicion’ qua involvement of petitioner in the offence in question, and he has been arrested on an unfounded presumption that he was a part of unlawful assembly. The counsel further submitted that the eye witness statement cannot be relied upon as they were planted.

The prosecution submitted that during investigation, the police found that there was a group on Whatsapp called “Kattar Hindu Ekta” which was created on February 25, 2020 which contained various incriminating messages from the members of the group, especially one Lokesh Solanki who revealed names of other members of the group who were actively involved in the riots, which included the petitioner. He further disclosed that he along with his other associates, including the petitioner, had killed nine persons of other community, including Hashim Ali and his elder brother Aamir Khan, and threw their bodies in the gutter and burnt their vehicles as well.

The prosecution argued that the petitioner is amongst the conspirators who designed the killing of persons belonging to other community, and as per his call records, he was found at the crime spot at the time of the incident. He further stated that the petitioner’s role in the whatsapp group “Kattar Hindu Ekta” is still under scrutiny and if released on bail, he could threaten the witnesses.

The court, with respect to the contention that the witnesses are planted, refused to delve into it, and stated that credibility of witnesses is a matter of trial. The court observed that even if there is no CCTV footage against the petitioner, his call records show his presence at the crime scene and his being part of the “Kattar Hindu Ekta” group as well as statements of witnesses. The court thus refused to take a lenient view of the petitioner as the allegations levelled against him were grave.

“In the alleged incident a young boy of 19 years has lost his life. As per post mortem report, 42 grievous injuries were found on the person of the deceased which proved fatal for him. The case is pending at the stage of framing of charge. Besides present case, petitioner is implicated in eight other FIR cases and the apprehension expressed by prosecution that if released on bail, petitioner may threaten or influence the witnesses, is not misplaced,” the court observed.

Based on these observations, the court refused to grant bail to the petitioner, and dismissed the petition while making it clear that any observation made herein shall not influence the trial.

The order may be read here:

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The post Delhi violence: HC denies bail to murder accused part of ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’ Whatsapp group appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A critical report titled, Short is the Road that Leads from Fear to Hate: Fear Speech in Indian WhatsApp Groups by IIT Kharagpur’s Punyajoy Saha, Binny Mathew, Animesh Mukherjee and MIT Institute of Data, Systems and Society’s (USA) Kiran Garimella, elucidates the concept of ‘Fear Speech’ against Muslims in India.

Observing that social media platforms do play a massive role in radicalising the perpetrators of communal clashes, India is one of the 14 countries where religious minorities are constantly under attack, especially Muslims after the enactment of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

Hate Speech vs Fear Speech

Since India has strict laws against Hate Speech, the report explains a “subtle way” by which readers are incited against the minority group. This is called Fear Speech which is defined as “an expression aimed at instilling (existential) fear of a target (ethnic or religious) group.” Fear is generated through spreading information about the harmful things done by the target groups (Muslims) in the past or present and mere speculation showing the target group will take over and dominate in the future.

As an example, the report differentiates between Hate Speech and Fear Speech. A sentence that categorises itself as hate speech may sound something like, “That’s why I hate Islam! See how these mullahs are celebrating. Seditious traitors!!” 

Fear Speech, on the other hand, would read as, “Leave chatting and read this post or else all your life will be left in chatting. In 1378, a part was separated from India, became an Islamic nation – named Iran . . . and now Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala are on the verge of becoming an Islamic state . . . People who do love jihad — is a Muslim. Those who think of ruining the country — Every single one of them is a Muslim!!!! Everyone who does not share this message forward should be a Muslim. If you want to give Muslims a good answer, please share!! We will finally know how many Hindus are united today!!”

Hate speech is broadly defined as a form of expression that “attacks or diminishes, that incites violence or hate against groups, based on specific characteristics such as physical appearance, religion, descent, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or other, and it can occur with different linguistic styles, even in subtle forms or when humour is used.” It is more direct in its effect.

Fear Speech is a more indirect form of expression, where the aim is to instil fear to an extent of targeting and vilifying a particular community. It is an expression that attempts to instil a sense of fear in the mind of the readers and though it cannot be pinpointed if fear speech is the cause of the violence, it lowers the threshold to violence. Fear speech messages talk about topics such as aggression, crime, hate, fighting and negative emotions in general.

Spread of Fear Speech

The study explains the various means and tools used to promote negativity towards Muslims and portraying that they might be inciting disharmony across the nation and promote interfaith unions to “destroy” Hindu religion.

Very interestingly, the report explores the use of emojis on WhatsApp to represent ideas. The Hindutva ideologists prefer using the Bhagwa flag, bow and arrow, Trishul (trident), shankh (shell) emojis. Another set of emojis comprising pig and devil faces are used to represent Muslims in a toxic manner.

To have a deeper understanding of the topics discussed in fear speech messages, this report extensively explains the common words used with respect to certain sensitive topics. For instance, if the WhatsApp message is about ‘Love Jihad’, the keywords used in the whole text are- temples smashed, answer, rape, girls, Modi, women, book hadith, Hindu, whosoever won, work, robbery, etc.

As another instance, for the issue of Kerala riots, the messages have commonly used words like village, temple, Kerala, Quran, history, Mewat, congress, rape, Christian, Dalit, om sai, Love Jihad, come, start and Earth.

Statistically, the authors of the report have revealed that they collected data from over 5,000 such WhatsApp groups, gathering more than 2 million posts. Using this data, they manually curated a dataset of 27,000 posts out of which 8,000 posts accounted for fear speech.

They observed that the fear speech messages are re-posted by a greater number of users to more groups primarily because the users who post such messages are centrally placed in the WhatsApp network. Fear speech messages clearly fit into a set of topics relating to aggression, crime, and, violence showcasing Muslims as criminals and using dehumanising representations of them.

WhatsApp acts as a good target for bad actors who want to spread hatred towards a certain community at scale. On platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it can monitor the content posted and hence provide content moderation tools and countering mechanisms in place like suspension of the user and blocking of the post for limiting the use of harmful/hateful language. But WhatsApp is an end-to-end encrypted platform, where the message can be seen only by the end users. This makes the spread of any form of harmful content much easier.

But the report concludes that a quick Google search of the fear speech messages collected by them revealed the prevalence of the fear speech messages on Facebook and YouTube as well.

The entire report may be read here: 

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The post Is WhatsApp facilitating the demonisation of Indian Muslims? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has issued a notice “returnable in four weeks” on an application (I.A No. 6140 of 2021) seeking to restrain WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy in India, and to direct it to apply the privacy policy which is made applicable to users in European region.

While issuing notice to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, media giants WhatsApp and Facebook, CJI Bobde remarked, “People have grave concerns about their privacy. You may be a 2 trillion 3 trillion company. But the privacy of people is more important than your money!”

CJI : You must understand Mr. Datar, people have grave concerns about their privacy. You may be 2 trillion 3 trillion company. But the privacy of people are more important than your money.#WhatsApp #Facebook

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 15, 2021

LiveLaw reported that the Bench said it will have to consider if a similar petition, pending before the Delhi High Court, is maintainable when a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is already seized with the matter.

Background

The present application was filed in the matter, Karmanya Singh Sareen vs Union of India (SLP Civ. No. 804 of 2017) raising privacy concerns post the merger of Facebook and WhatsApp. In 2017, the top court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had said that a Constitution Bench will be constituted for hearing of protection of Privacy issue in WhatsApp.

According to LiveLaw, Senior Counsels Kapil Sibal (appearing for WhatsApp) and Arvind Datar (appearing for Facebook) argued before the Bench on February 15 that the petition has become infructuous as it is challenging the 2016 policy. They argued that the 2020 policy cannot be challenged by merely filing an intervention application and instead, a substantive petition must be drawn.

The Senior Advocates, including Mukul Rohtagi (also appearing for WhatsApp), who agreed with the above-mentioned stance, argued that that the Delhi High Court has already issued notice on a petition challenging the WhatsApp policy and urged the Apex Court to dismiss this application.

On February 3, as reported by LiveLaw, the Delhi High Court Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had sought responses of the Centre and WhatsApp on the petition challenging the new policy that does not provide the users any option to protect their personal data by opting out of their policy of sharing data with other Facebook companies.

Submissions

Senior Advocate Shyam Divan (appearing for the applicant) told the Supreme Court that WhatsApp’s policy is discriminatory as it differentiates between its Indian users and its users based in Europe, tweeted LiveLaw.

He said, “One set of privacy standards apply to Europe and a different set of standards apply to Indians. This happens when the Personal Data Protection Bill is pending… There is a huge differentiation between Europeans and Indians”.

He also submitted that the application contends that WhatsApp shall not use lower privacy standards for Indian users when compared to Europeans and till Personal Data Protection law comes into force, WhatsApp should not be allowed to share data with Facebook or any third party. He also sought a direction to the Ministry to direct WhatsApp to not implement the new privacy policy till the concerns are addressed.

Responding to this, Sibal argued that no differential treatment is being meted out to Indian users. He submitted that the same policy is applicable across the world and a separate policy has been framed only for Europe, given their data privacy laws. According to LiveLaw, he said, “My learned friend (Shyam Divan) said WhatsApp is differentiating between India and Europe. The fact is that this policy is applicable to the rest of the world except Europe. Same policy is the US, Australia etc. In Europe it is different because they have a special law”.

Sibal : My learned friend said WhatsApp is differentiating between India and Europe. The fact is that this policy is applicable to the rest of the world except Europe. Same policy is US, Australia etc. In Europe it is different because they have a special law.#WhatsApp

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 15, 2021

Arvind Datar, for Facebook, then submitted that Europe follows the General Data Protection Regulations which is applicable to about 27 countries and that is why there is a special law in place. “They keep on saying we are sharing data, sharing data. That is not true. When we are complying with Central Ministry guidelines, how can Article 32 petition lie?”, he said.

But the CJI seemed to have been impressed by the applicant’s lawyer Shyam Divan’s submissions and highlighted the privacy concern of people. He said, “You must understand Mr. Datar, people have grave concerns about their privacy. You may be a 2 trillion 3 trillion company. But the privacy of people is more important than your money. We will tell you what we read in the media. People think that when A messages B, the whole thing that A messaged B is disclosed to Facebook”, tweeted LiveLaw.

Arvind Datar assured the court that WhatsApp’s messages are encrypted end to end and that they are willing to file an affidavit saying that no personal information is being stored or shared. The Bench then asked them to file their reply within the next four weeks.

The matter will now be taken up tentatively after four weeks.

The order may be read here:

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The post SC issues notice on plea against WhatsApp’s privacy policy appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Recently, nearly 500 pages of transcripts of what are allegedly text messages shared between Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, and Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)’s former chief Executive Officer Partho Dasgupta, were leaked.

The leaked pages are allegedly a part of a 3,000-word supplementary charge-sheet filed by the Maharashtra Police against Goswami and his co-accused in a case of alleged tampering of Television Rating Points (TRP). They not only allegedly reveal Goswami’s proximity to top government officials and influence in those circles, but also appear to suggest that this proximity might have led Goswami to have access to top secret information.

The Balakot Bombshell

The excerpts dated February 23, 2019, show Goswami informing Dasgupta at around 10:31 PM that “something big will happen.” To this Dasgupta responded a little later in the chat at around 10:36 PM asking, “Dawood?” Goswami then clarifies, “No, sir. Pakistan. Something major will be done this time.” It is noteworthy that this was three days before the Balakot airstrikes.

Here’s what follows next:

Dasgupta: “Good.”

Dasgupta: “It’s good for big man in this season.”

Dasgupta: “He will sweep polls then.”

Dasgupta: “Strike? Or bigger”

Arnab Goswami: “Bigger than a normal strike. And also on the same time something major on Kashmir. On Pakistan the government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated. Exact words used.”

It is this last part where Goswami says, “Exact words used” that suggests someone in the know of the impending strike. Speaking exclusively to SabrangIndia, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former Chief of the Naval Staff, a decorated war veteran, and winner of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM), and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), explains, “Any aspect of military operations planned or underway has the highest security classification. For Service personnel it is covered under provisions of the Army, Navy and Airforce Acts 1957 (Statutory) and also, the Articles of War which may attract the penalty of Death.” Admiral Bhagwat further explains, “The core of Operations Plans is WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and HOW. Of the above WHERE, WHEN and HOW are the most important.”

The circle of people who have all operational information is extremely tight and prior information is only shared on a need-to-know basis only with people directly involved with the operation. Admiral Bhagwat, was once the Chief of the Naval Staff, and thus knows how tightly operational secrecy is guarded. He explains, “Chiefs of Staff of our Armed Forces and their immediate Ops Staff do not as a rule share the WHERE , WHEN and HOW components of Operational Plans with even the highest Civilian authority of the Government, even in a War Room briefing, except in general terms and if pressed by the Prime Minister do so in general terms avoiding specifics.”

Therefore, the current matter of sharing of sensitive information has at least two players; a high-ranking defense or government official who was the GIVER of the information and Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of a television news channel who was the RECEIVER of the information.

As Admiral Bhagwat explains, “Firstly the GIVER of the information has to have the express authorisation of the Chief of Air Staff or the Chief himself. The RECEIVER of the information is clearly not a person authorised to receive such information no matter at which level of the Govt he was briefed, because that Civilian official too is grievously violating the Law and putting Ops in jeopardy seriously risking lives.”

Thus, the concerns raised about national security are legitimate. “There is no question that this particular PRE ‘D’ Day and Pre-H Hour briefing to a civilian journalist by either a military or Civilian authority is in the most serious category of violation of national security, and as is clearly committed by those in the highest echelons of the Government and the Military, must attract the highest punishment as they are the very upholders of the Laws of the Land in force,” says Admiral Bhagwat, adding, “Passing the buck or covering it up by clever words or subterfuge will not pass and must never be permitted.”

Opposition demands answers

Needless to say, these leaked chat transcripts have set the cat among the pigeons and now nobody, especially Opposition leaders, can stop talking about the leaked chats.

Congress leader, Member of Parliament (MP) and legal eagle, Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted, “Arnab’s chats dated 23.02.2019 refer to sharing of Intel re: action along the Pak border. It means someone very senior in Govt is leaking highly confidential info which may endanger the lives of our soldiers & so that mercenary considerations can add to TRPs.”

Arnab’s chats dated 23.02.2019 refer to sharing of Intel re: action along the Pak border. It means someone very senior in Govt is leaking highly confidential info which may endanger the lives of our soldiers & so that mercenary considerations can add to TRPs.

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 16, 2021

Another legal scholar and Congress Leader P. Chidambaram, who was incarcerated on allegedly trumped-up charges by a vindictive regime asked, “Did a journalist (and his friend) know about the retaliatory strike on Balakot camp three days before the actual strike?” He went on to demand an explanation from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asking, “If yes, what is the guarantee that their ‘source’ did not share the information with others as well, including spies or informers working for Pakistan? How did a “For Your Eyes Only” decision find its way to the government-supporting journalist?”

If yes, what is the guarantee that their ‘source’ did not share the information with others as well, including spies or informers working for Pakistan?

How did a “For Your Eyes Only” decision find its way to the government-supporting journalist? @rajnathsingh

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) January 17, 2021

Eventually, even Rahul Gandhi joined the chorus. At a press conference to purportedly take on the government on the ongoing farmers’ agitation, Gandhi couldn’t resist commenting on Arnabgate. “Sensitive defence information before Balakot was given to a journalist. Even the pilots get such information at the last moment. Top five people (the prime minister, the defence minister, the home minister, the IAF chief and the NSA) had this information. Someone out of them gave him this information. This is criminal. We must find out who gave and the process of the probe should begin but it will not because the PM must have given the information,” alleged Gandhi, adding “If Arnab Goswami knew, I believe Pakistan also knew.”

Congress National Spokesperson, Pawan Khera too asked some tough questions, “As president of the ruling party, why was Amit Shah supposedly influencing TRAI? What was the hold #ArnabGoswami had on the second most powerful man in India – Amit Shah?”

‘As president of the ruling party, why was Amit Shah supposedly influencing TRAI? What was the hold #ArnabGoswami had on the second most powerful man in India – Amit Shah?’ Today’s press conference #GaddarBJPArnab pic.twitter.com/6PedBsb6N0

— Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) January 20, 2021

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted, “Those in Govt will not last for eternity and greedy media persons will not live forever but the damage they are causing to Indian democracy, its institutions & their credibility is irreversible. Not acceptable at all! Shameful!”

Those in Govt will not last for eternity and greedy media persons will not live forever but the damage they are causing to Indian democracy, its institutions & their credibility is irreversible. Not acceptable at all! Shameful!#ArnabGate

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) January 17, 2021

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra state government is mulling appropriate action against Arnab Goswami. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted, “The NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase Ji and Pradeep Deshmukh Ji have complained to me today about the leaked WhatsApp conversation between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta that went viral on social media.” He added, “We will take legal advice on this matter & consult with senior police officers to decide further course of action.”

We will take legal advice on this matter & consult with senior police officers to decide further course of action. (2/2)

— ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) January 19, 2021

The Hindustan Times quoted Deshmukh as saying, “On the state level, we are checking if Maharashtra Police can initiate action. I am speaking to senior police officers and have sought legal opinion if action can be initiated under section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.” 

TRPs trump Pulwama tragedy?

Meanwhile, Arnab Goswami is also in the dock for his comments on the Pulwama attack. A portion of the transcripts from February 14, 2019 deals with the Pulwama attacks, and Goswami’s take on how his channel won the TRP battle have severely tarnished his “nationalist” credentials.

In this exchange, On February 14, 2019, at around 4:19 PM Goswami brags to Dasgupta, “Sir 20 min ahead on the biggest terrorist attack of the year on Kashmir.. only only channel with aground presence”

To this Dasgupta responds asking, “Modi happened yesterday?”

Goswami responds saying, “Have planned some buildup thing after we spoke. Idea to gain massive spike. So used his speech yesterday and pushed it by a bit.” He then went on to say, “This attack we have won like crazy”

The Pulwama attacks shook the nation as 40 security personnel were killed when a asuicide bomber drove into their convoy. It was one of the darkest days the country has seen.

Goswami responds to allegations

However, Goswai has dismissed all allegations against him. In a statement released, he said, “It is beyond absurd to suggest that expecting India to strike back at Pakistan, after the Pulwama attack, was a crime. It was publicly available information and thousands of journalists reported, wrote, broadcast and analysed in the same direction after Pulwama. There are thousands of articles from that time suggesting a hard and tough response from the Indian Forces. The Government stated the same in interviews to our Network and elsewhere, which were broadcast across the world. Two things were made public at that time, officially— 1. That there will be an extremely tough military retaliation by India. 2. That the time and place of the retaliation will be chosen by India.”

Goswami further says, “I am horrified that the Congress party actually thinks that any journalist in India expressing the views publicly stated by the Government is committing a crime. In the last 10 months, from an attempted acid attack on me to framing of fake and false cases to arresting me illegally (in a case which the Supreme Court said had no prima facie merits) to assaulting me, my wife and my son, and slapping cases against them to filing an omnibus case against my entire newsroom and all my editors to putting me in jail on the trumped up charges to assaulting me in custody to interrogating my colleagues for 500 hours to whiplashing my colleague Ghanshyam with a chakki belt in custody and now joining hands with Pakistan to questioning my love and commitment to this great nation. I have been through it all.”

After claiming he has support of “millions of Indians” and schooling Indian media on “introspection”, Goswami signs off with, “Satyamev Jayate! Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Jai Hind!” Perhaps he is trying to repair the damage to his “nationalist credentials” in a bid to remain valuable to those whose political patronage he allegedly enjoys.

Meanwhile, Dasgupta who had been arrested on December 24, for his alleged involvement in the case was denied bail by the Sessions Court on Wednesday. Dasgupta had approached the Sessions Court after a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court turned down his bail plea citing he needed to be kept away from other accused and material witnesses while a probe of the case was on. 

Related:

Republic TV, two others accused of TRP fraud
Republic TV making TRP scam a “media spectacle”: Mumbai Police to SC
Goswami’s Republic Bharat pulled up for hate speech against Pakistan: UK regulator
Right to free speech does not mean a licence to promote hate speech: Editors Guild of India
Court takes cognisance of chargesheet in suicide abetment case against Arnab Goswami
Republic TV and Times Now reportage prima facie contemptuous: Bombay High Court

The post Arnabgate: Evaluating crime and punishment appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Recently Whatsapp users across the world started receiving messages from the company about impending changes to the privacy policy that will become active from February 8. Users are to accept changes by then or risk losing their accounts.

This comes in wake of the recent controversy surrounding data collected by Whatsapp as opposed to other messaging services. Recently, Forbes published a comparison of data collected by iMessage (Apple) and Whatsapp, and found that while Apple only collects e-mail address, phone number, search history and device ID, Whatsapp collects 25 different types of data including purchase history, coarse location, payment information, product interaction and advertising data.    

This has raised privacy concerns among users worldwide and many are now looking for more secure channels of communication. Moreover, since Whatsapp is a part of the Facebook family of companies, data is also shared with other companies in this family. Facebook had acquired Whatsapp in 2014 and currently the family includes apps like Facebook and Instagram apart from Whatsapp.

But what exactly is the data that Whatsapp collects and why does it have so many people concerned?

According to Whatsapp’s Privacy Policy, following is the list of data that is automatically collected:

The entire privacy policy may be read here: https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy/?lang=en

Sharing data with other Facebook owned apps

According to Whatsapp, “As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies. We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products.”

Privacy of messages

As far as messages go, Whatsapp says, “We do not retain your messages in the ordinary course of providing our Services to you. Instead, your messages are stored on your device and not typically stored on our servers. Once your messages are delivered, they are deleted from our servers.” The exception to this is messages that could not be delivered. Whatsapp says, “If a message cannot be delivered immediately (for example, if the recipient is offline), we keep it in encrypted form on our servers for up to 30 days as we try to deliver it. If a message is still undelivered after 30 days, we delete it.”

But the mass exodus from Whatsapp has already begun. Whatsapp chief Will Cathcart had to take to Twitter to defend his app saying, “With end-to-end encryption, we cannot see your private chats or calls and neither can Facebook. We’re committed to this technology and committed to defending it globally.” He further clarified that the update was restricted to business accounts, “It’s important for us to be clear this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook. It does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world.”

The entire thread may be read here:

It’s important for us to be clear this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook. It does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world.

— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) January 8, 2021

Social media was especially abuzz after SpaceX chief Elon Musk suggested people start using Signal, an app that is perceived to be more respectful of people’s privacy.

Use Signal

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021

This led to mass downloads of the Signal app, causing some delays in registration. Signal gleefully tweeted:

Verification codes are currently delayed across several providers because so many new people are trying to join Signal right now (we can barely register our excitement). We are working with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there.

— Signal (@signalapp) January 7, 2021

Related:

Aarogya Setu: Whose App is it anyway?
IFF files RTI to check GoI’s attempt to open backdoor into encrypted data
Centre considers pre-installed government software in all Android phones
Facebook moves SC against Delhi govt’s Peace and Harmony Committee summons

The post Changes to Whatsapp’s privacy policy alarm users appeared first on SabrangIndia.