Editorial: Governing global tech giants

While concerns over privacy violations are genuine, internet majors should engage with the authorities to arrive at practical solutions

Any business enterprise operating in the country must comply with the laws of the land. This rule is non-negotiable. There is no reason why global technology giants like Facebook, Google and WhatsApp, with a major presence in the Indian market, should be reluctant to follow the guidelines laid down by the government. In the ongoing stand-off with the Centre over the new rules for the information technology companies, a middle ground can be found without infringing on the privacy rights of the users on social media platforms. The question that is being asked, and rightly so, is why the tech majors are putting up resistance to follow the norms in India while readily agreeing to do so without a murmur of protest in countries like Singapore and in Europe. While Facebook and Google have expressed their readiness to comply with the new IT rules and sought more time, Facebook-owned microblogging site WhatsApp, which has nearly 400 million users in India, has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High court challenging the new regulations on the grounds that they would undermine privacy protections. While the concerns over possible privacy violations and breach of encryption technology are genuine and need to be addressed in a fair manner, the internet majors should engage with the authorities to arrive at practical solutions that are mutually acceptable. The new regulations, notified by the Centre in February, stipulate that the social media companies must specifically designate compliance officers and nodal contact persons to receive and acknowledge complaints and other requests.

Among the provisions that has become most contentious is the one that requires social media companies to identify the “first originator of information” when authorities demand it. It is argued by the privacy activists that since the messages on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, compliance to the new regulation will mean breaking the encryption for receivers, as well as “originators”, of messages. The new traceability and filtering requirements may put an end to end-to-end encryption and thereby undermine the right to privacy. The Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, promulgated by the Ministry of Information Technology, designate social media companies that have more than 50 lakh users in India as “significant social media intermediaries”. If they fail to comply with the new guidelines, they will stand to lose protection from lawsuits and criminal prosecution. Neither the social media companies nor the government can afford to prolong the stand-off at the cost of the interests of millions of users. A wider debate and a more vigorous engagement are needed to fix the encryption and other operational issues without compromising on the privacy of the users and also to ensure compliance with the revised guidelines.