Justice (R) Srikrishna criticises govt. on new IT rules

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  Justice (R) Srikrishna criticises govt. on new IT rules

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• The story: Justice Srikrishna, who chaired the committee that drafted the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill submitted to the government in July 2018 yet to be turned into law, is unhappy with recent events in India. He has criticised the Indian governments move to clamp down on social media firms, using the new IT rules. 
• Undeclared emergency: Justice Srikrishna described the face-off between the central government and global social media platforms over the new IT rules as well as other attempts to gag voices speaking against the government as an 'undeclared emergency'. He said he was quite doubtful about India's status as a free country now! He said that by mandating social media apps like WhatsApp to enable traceability of the originator of messages under the new Intermediary Guidelines the centre is “trying to make inroads into the fundamental right of privacy.” The demand is not legal unless it is backed by legislation passed by the Parliament.
• Questioning the government: Justice Srikrishna questioned the government’s actions including demand for traceability from WhatsApp, the Delhi Police team’s visit to the Twitter office when the company failed to remove tags on specific tweets by ruling party politicians as well as FIRs filed against people for criticising the government on social media. 

1. He said that, “Everything I say on social media does not make me a traitor or a person who hates my country. If I criticise the government on oxygen shortage, does it make (one) anti-national or a criminal.” 
2. He pointed to the lack of a robust privacy policy that is leading to "scattered" policies by the government. If the PDP Bill was in place, it would clearly lay down the privacy requirements for companies, user rights, mechanisms for government surveillance and establish a regulator for concerns. It is the same mess the govt. created with Aadhar Act.
3. Since there was a lack of necessary safeguards under the current IT rules, requirements such as traceability can open up unregulated access to the private messages of people. Only a law passed by the Parliament, which specifies the strict “circumstances under which the right of privacy will be subject to restrictions” and its applicability on social media or OTT platform is the right way to approach the issue.
4. All developed countries, be it Australia or the EU have privacy policies which empower them to get companies like Google to agree to certain demands from the State. India is simply shooting in the dark. There is no focused data protection or data privacy policy.

• Free speech: As far as the government's demand for viewing content for national security reasons is concerned, he said that “I am entitled to say anything, this is freedom of speech. But if I talk about some terrorist activity, that is actionable. That is the only thing for which they can have access. In order to have that there must be tangible evidence before you can access my telephone. We should have a law which controls it.”
• Summary: Clearly, the government ought to think carefully about the approach it is taking, and not let purely perception requirements guide policy actions.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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