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Modi Govt to tighten laws as WhatsApp rejects demand for software to trace message origin

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Modi Govt to tighten laws as WhatsApp rejects demand for software to trace message origin

Whatsapp has rejected Modi government’s demand for making software to trace origin of a message on its platform, said media reports.

The response has prompted the government to consider issuing new, stringent guidelines by September to amplify the accountability of internet and social media companies under Indian law and to ensure they react quickly to stop the spread of rumours or offensive content on their platforms, according to a report in The Economic Times, quoting an official.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said, “Building traceability would undermine end-to-end encryption and the private nature of WhatsApp, creating the potential for serious misuse. WhatsApp will not weaken the privacy protections we provide.”

People rely on WhatsApp for all kinds of “sensitive conversations”, including with their doctors, banks and families. “Our focus remains on working closer with others in India to educate people about misinformation and help keep people safe,” the spokesperson added.

WhatsApp Head Chris Daniels had met IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad earlier this week. After the meeting, Prasad told reporters that the government has asked WhatsApp to set up a local corporate entity and find a technology solution to trace the origin of fake messages circulated through its platform as well as appoint a grievance officer. He acknowledged the role played by the Facebook-owned company in India’s digital story, but was stern that WhatsApp could face abetment charges if it did not take action to tackle the issue of fake news being circulated on its platform.

Daniels had declined to comment on the proceedings after the meeting. Briefing reporters on his talks with WhatsApp’s Daniels, minister Prasad said the company (WhatsApp) has agreed to set up a corporate entity in India, appoint a grievance officer in the country as well as follow the local laws of the land.

The Indian government has served two notices to WhatsApp seeking details of actions it has taken to curb the menace. In its response, WhatsApp had informed that it is building a local team, including having an India head, and has introduced new features to let its users identify forwarded messages.

WhatsApp has also restricted the number of forwards that can be done at a time. Besides, the company is also running advocacy and education programme to help people spot fake news. Last month, WhatsApp top executives, including COO Matthew Idema, met IT Secretary and other Indian government officials to outline various steps being taken by the company on the issue.

Now, with WhatsApp refusing to build software to trace origin of messages, the government is contemplating notification of fresh clauses under existing intermediary guidelines under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, said ET quoting an official.

“The draft of the guidelines is ready and a legal firm is vetting it. It should be out by September,” the person said.

The proposed guidelines will mandate global internet and social media firms to name a grievance officer in the country tasked with responding to complaints within a few hours, as well as ensure there is traceability of content.

The intermediary guidelines under Section 79 of the IT Act, which was notified in 2011, mandates companies to follow “due diligence” and allowed time up to 36 hours for companies to remove objectionable content and name a grievance officer on its website for response.

However, these guidelines were not stringently enforced. Currently, internet firms such as Google and Facebook, which also owns WhatsApp, are categorised as intermediaries which act as facilitators and do not actively take part in creating or modifying information.

“The ball is now in our court, we have to come out with guidelines under Section 79 of the IT Act and then we can take it to WhatsApp (or any other internet company) and say you are not complying with them,” the government officer told ET. “These will provide us with tools to enforce (things), right now they say that they are endto-end encrypted so can’t trace the origin of messages,” the official said.

The move by the government to mandate the traceability of messages circulated will open up a “can of worms” since the law will also be binding on text messages on cellular networks, said the ET report quoting legal experts.

“The government can’t expect officials of companies to take decisions on content within a few hours, something the courts will take many years to decide,” said Rahul Matthan, partner at law firm Trilegal. “There are some sites such as Facebook which curate the news feed and play some control, and we can put responsibility on them, but all messages don’t need to be reviewed to solve this,” ET quoted him as saying.

The report said privacy experts are of the view that the proposed guidelines, if enforced, could potentially violate the Supreme Court’s past verdict during the 2015 Shreya Singhal judgement.

“The Section 79 rules were subject to review and reading down by the Supreme Court of India in its landmark Shreya Singhal judgment. Any change to them would impact constitutional rights, and requires great care and open discussion,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, global policy director at Access Now, a digital advocacy group. “It’s unfortunate that the government body tasked to manage this — the Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee –appears to not be meeting or engaging with stakeholders publicly.”

Trilegal’s Matthan said the Supreme Court has asked the government to come up with a law against lynching and not against the messenger. “The legislature can’t amend the concepts which have been laid down by the apex court during the Singhal judgement,” he added.

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Mamata Banerjee slams BJP over Mahua Moitra expulsion from Lok Sabha says betrayal of  parliamentary democracy

The West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress boss said she felt sad to see the attitude of the BJP. She said the BJP did not allow Mahua Moitra to explain her stand.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday slammed the BJP over Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha after a debate on the cash-for-query allegations. She said the move was unacceptable and betrayed India’s parliamentary democracy.

Talking to the media, Banerjee said she felt sad to see the attitude of the BJP. She questioned how the BJP can betray parliamentary democracy. She said the BJP did not even allow Mahua to explain her stand in the House. She added full injustice had been done to the expelled MP.

Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress stands in full support of Moitra. She said the BJP could not defeat the Trinamool in elections, so they have resorted to vendetta politics. She said Moitra will return to Parliament with a bigger mandate. Banerjee said the BJP thought it can do whatever it wants as they have a brute majority. She added that a day will come when the BJP will not be in power.

After her expulsion from the Lok Sabha, Moitra told reporters outside Parliament that said will fight it out over the next 30 years inside and outside Parliament, inside the gutter and on the streets. She accused the BJP of hating Muslims and women. She claimed Adani was buying all of India’s ports and airports. She said Adani shareholders are foreign investors and the Home Ministry was giving them clearance to buy India’s infrastructure.

Reacting to her expulsion, Moitra said there was no evidence of any cash, any gifts anywhere. She said she had been expelled for sharing her Lok Sabha portal login. She said there are no rules governing the sharing of logins. She said tomorrow the CBI will be sent to her house and she is going to be harassed for the next six months.

Many Opposition parties have supported Moitra over the way she was expelled without getting a chance to put forth her stand.

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Nine newborns, toddler die within 24 hours at Murshidabad Medical College Hospital

Dan said another problem was that renovation work was going on at the Jangipur Hospital and all the patients there are being sent to Mursidabad Medical College. He said only 129 beds were available for 300 patients. He said they were trying their best but were unable to the children who were malnourished and under weight.

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Nine newborn babies and a two-year-old child died within 24 hours at Murshidabad Medical College Hospital in West Bengal. The shocking incident has caused public outrage. According to reports, the babies were shifted from the Special New Born Care Unit at Jangipur Sub-Divisional Hospital to Murshidabad Medical College due to lack of proper facilities.

The sudden influx of patients put pressure on the already overloaded medical college. This led to unfortunate deaths of the new-born babies, the hospital management informed the inquiry committee. On the basis of a preliminary inquiry, it was found most of the children were found to be malnourished and their weight was 300-500 gm only. One child had a severe heart problem since birth.

Professor Amit Dan, Principal of Murshidabad Medical College, said the hospital did not have the facilities to carry out the treatment of the newborn. He said they did not have the time to shift the newborn to any other facility to carry out the treatment.

Dan said another problem was that renovation work was going on at the Jangipur Hospital and all the patients there are being sent to Mursidabad Medical College. He said only 129 beds were available for 300 patients. He said they were trying their best but were unable to attend to the children who were malnourished and underweight.

Dan paid his condolences to the bereaved families and acknowledged a need for thorough investigation in the matter. A medical board of renowned doctors is investigating the matter. The state health department has also issued a statement assuring that necessary measures will be taken for the prevention of such tragedies from occurring again. Reports said some 380 newborns had been sent to the hospital in the last 30 days.    

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PM Modi inaugurates Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit 2023 at the Forest Research Institute

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand took to X (formerly Twitter) and said hearty welcome on behalf of 1.25 crore people of the state on the arrival of world’s most popular leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has a special attachment to Devbhoomi, a rapidly emerging state with the coordination of Ecology, Economy and Technology.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit 2023 at the Forest Research Institute. The two day summit aims to promote the state of Uttarakhand as a major investment destination. PM Modi also launched the house of Himalayas brand to promote local products and increase the income of self help groups.

Before the Inauguration, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced the success of the summit, surpassing the targeted MoU signings. The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand said the investments exceeded expectations with Rs 44000 crore have already been materialized on the ground. The substantial investments will help in the generation of employment opportunities for the people of Uttarakhand.

Preparations for the summit have been going on for months. The summit is being attended by more than a thousand investors and delegates from all over India and abroad. The target of the summit is to sign MoUs worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore. But the summit has already exceeded that limit to reach around Rs 3 lakh crore in the run up to the event. The summit saw many roadshows being held by Dhami in India’s metro cities as well as London, Birmingham in the UK, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand took to X (formerly Twitter) and said hearty welcome on behalf of 1.25 crore people of the state on the arrival of world’s most popular leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has a special attachment to Devbhoomi, a rapidly emerging state with the coordination of Ecology, Economy and Technology.

Earlier CM Dhami met the representatives of investor delegates who had arrived for the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit 2023 on Thursday. Welcoming the representatives of the industry, the chief minister said this time the theme of the investor’s summit has been kept by the government of Uttarakhand as Peace to Prosperity.

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