Days after passing a controversial order authorising ten central agencies to ‘snoop’ into anyone’s computer, reports suggest that the the government has now turned its watchful gaze towards social media and online content.
In the wake of the government’s notification, the opposition Congress accused the Centre of turning India into a "surveillance state", while experts also fear that this may pose a serious threat individual's online privacy and may lead to “censorship” of online content.
Defending government's position, Amit Malviya, head of BJP IT-cell spoke to BloombergQuint's Tamanna Inamdar and stated that the order was an extension of a law brought in 2009 under UPA's rule which laid down 'safeguards' for intercepting or decrypting information. Malviya added that the recent order went ahead to specify the agencies in order to prevent misuse of the law.
“There is an RTI of 2013 which says there were 9,000 phone-calls and 500 e-mails were regularly being intercepted and de crypted and no one knew who was authorising it. The notification that has come in, we will know which are the agencies that can access information and the authorised person behind it. This ensures that there are procedures being followed as per the law.”Amit Malviya, Head of BJP IT-Cell
Malviya further implied that the proposed amendments in the IT Act are in talks and are taken into consideration to tackle ‘fake news.’
Nikhil Pahwa, Founder of website – MediaNama stated that it necessary to first have reforms on surveillance.
“We need reforms over surveillance agencies and intelligence agencies. These need to be governed by the parliament first, before you start giving them (agencies) more powers.”Nikhil Pahwa, Founder of MediaNama
On pro-active monitoring and removal of content by the government agencies, Pahwa further implied that due the ‘exceptional cases’ of security, the government should not push itself towards a mass-surveillance environment.
‘This is Chinese Model of Threatening’
Echoing similar concerns as pointed by Pahwa, Executive director of Internet Freedom Foundation, Apar Gupta said that the current notification by the government is a cause of concern as this may not only lead to state of surveillance, however will also push towards content censorship, thus hampering the right to express.
“This is a chinese model in which you (government) is threatening.”Apar Gupta, Executive director of Internet Freedom Foundation
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