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Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
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26 May, 8 tweets, 2 min read
So WhatsApp has sued the Indian government for imposing the IT Rules 2021. This is probably the most significant privacy case in India, ever since the Right to Privacy case.

Thread on what this is about:
1. WhatsApp uses end to end encryption. This doesn't just mean that they don't know what is in our messages. It also means that they don't know who has sent what message.

The only time they can see the content of the message is when someone marks it as spam,in which case the
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user who has marked it as spam unencrypts it for WhatsApp to see.

2. The IT Rules force WhatsApp to change this: the govt has said that it wants WhatsApp to identify the originator of a message (but doesn't want the message content). When this is for law enforcement
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purposes, and is for only one individual or with a legitimate and legal purpose, this seems reasonable. Even the right to privacy judgment allows for some exceptions to the fundamental right to privacy, namely: proportionality and legitimacy, and backed by law.

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3. Is it backed by law? The IT Act doesn't support traceability, and the IT Rules go beyond the IT Act, so NO. Is it proportionate? That's where things become tricky. I'll explain:

4. For WhatsApp to enable identifying originator of even one message, it would mean that they
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have to rearchitect the entire platform. This potentially compromises all its users .

The court will have to decide if it is proportionate to violate the privacy of everyone to identify one sender of a message. IMO, it's not proportionate. Of course, in all of this, govt
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is being coy and saying, "We're not asking you to break end to end encryption", knowing fully well that that's the only way this can be implemented.

5. Not just WhatsApp: WhatsApp's push for adoption of its new privacy policy which allows sharing of data w Facebook Business
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has irked many, and a few months ago, this led to a wider adoption of Signal in India. Signal's privacy features are even better than WhatsApp,and in fact WhatsApp uses the Signal Protocol for End to End Encryption. These rules impact all social media, including Signal.
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Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
25 May
Seeing lots of tweets suggesting that Twitter & Facebook might be banned tomorrow after IT Rules 2021 come into effect.

Some news entities irresponsibility playing on this with alarmist clickbait headlines too
indiatoday.in/technology/new…

This is wrong. I'll explain:

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1. IT Rules 2021 are coming into effect tomorrow, and even if the deadline won't get extended, the Govt is unlike to enforce all the provisions & hold platforms to account unless it really needs to, because the platforms could then move court to challenge the guidelines.
2/
The govt wouldn't want to give platforms reason to go to court because these rules are so majorly unconstitutional that they won't want to risk embarassment in courts. The rules are already being challenged on such grounds btw. Need more.

2. Govt was expected to issue a set of
Read 14 tweets
Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
21 May
So, a thread with some context on the Government of India asking Twitter to remove the "Manipulated Media" tag on Sambit Patra's tweet. Story here: medianama.com/2021/05/223-sa…

1. There's no official statement, no copy of the letter sent, but news agencies like ANI and PTI are
1/
reporting it quoting anonymous sources so there seems to be a selective leak. What stops MEITY from publishing its correspondence anyway? Not clear. We'll file RTI's anyway.

2. The government can object all it wants, but exactly what part of India's IT Act allows them to have
2/
this "manipulated media" tag removed? None. Twitter can tag whatever it wants, whoever it wants, whenever it wants. It's their platform. Govt can only request, not order for the tag to be removed AFAIK.

3. There is a suggestion from the ANI tweets that as per MEITY,this puts

3/
Read 11 tweets
Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
4 May
So, some thoughts on the deplatforming of Kangana Ranaut by Twitter.

1. This is probably the first instance where Twitter has deplatformed a significant (and politically active) user in the country. It creates for an interesting debate.

2. Indian politicians were worried:
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In January 2021, @Tejasvi_Surya had raised concerns about Twitter's exercise of such power when Donald Trump had been deplatformed. He had called for amendments to India's approach to Intermediary Liability to address such situations.
2/
 medianama.com/2021/01/223-bj…
This is a wake-up call to the threat to democracies posed by “unregulated big tech companies”, he said. “If they can do this to POTUS, they can do this to anyone”.
Platform regulation has been an important issue for him. He's also on the Parliamentary


3/
Read 12 tweets
Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
5 Mar
I'll answer this.

Thread.

1. Censor board doesn't have the capacity to deal with 20000+ movies being produced in India annually. Where will it find the capacity to apply its mind to all the movies being produced for OTT globally? The lag will destroy consumer choice

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2. The need is to move from censorship and govt certification to self certification. And more detailed certification than just a rating. OTT streaming services already do this and have norms. If someone violates the law, prosecute them.

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3. All streaming is pull content. People are choosing to watch something: not being pushed at them. Norms for broadcast cannot apply here. Not the same thing. You can't treat it the same as TV.

3/
Read 12 tweets
Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
20 Feb
I was on @alexandermats show on ET Now yesterday, to discuss Facebook and Google vs Australia when it comes to News content, and how they've taken different approaches.

The key question: can this happen in India?

A thread 👇

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1. What's going on?
A proposed News Media Bargaining Code released by the Australian competition watchdog forces Google and Facebook to enter into arbitration with news publishers to decide a price for News on their platforms.
medianama.com/2021/02/223-in…

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Price for Google to surface news. For users to share on FB.

2. Power imbalance: Australian competition commission believes there's a power imbalance between News publishers and social media platforms. This is true.

3. Google has done a deal with Rupert Murdoch's News corp

3/
Read 18 tweets
Nikhil Pahwa Profile picture
17 Feb
So, a significant day for us at @medianama today. An especially difficult decision for me to make, since I've always felt a pull from a public interest perspective that information, in order to be effective and usable by a wider group, needs to be open, and accessible

1/
Our goal has always been to help bring about a deeper understanding of the forces shaping the Internet, especially in India, with the mission to foster an Internet that is open, fair, competitive and global.

Our work has provided insight that has helped shape tech policy,

2/
encouraged public participation in policy-making, provided policy & business decision makers with food for thought, been a source for papers, research reports & books, as well as helped journalists at other publications understand what’s important.

3/
Read 7 tweets

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