Industry body Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) that represents big techs such as Meta, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon has opposed the draft Indian Telecommunications Bill.
The concern is mainly around Clause 24(2) of the bill, which expands the scope of surveillance to telecommunications services or telecommunication networks. It stated that provisions of the bill can force messaging platforms to break encryption and disclose messages to the government in response to surveillance orders.
In the letter, the AIC pointed out that under the current unified licence framework, licensees are prohibited from employing bulk encryption equipment in their network. “Further, requiring OTT service providers to break encryption, for example, to enable interception is likely to weaken the security measures deployed by them, and in turn worsen the problem the Government is trying to address – i.e., tackling cybercrime,” the letter read.
AIC Managing Director Jeff Paine said, “The draft bill does not provide any clarity on whether with the proposed licensing framework, the terms under the UL framework also become applicable to OTT service providers.”
Earlier, the draft bill, and specifically provisions related to OTT and its ramifications on encryption, garnered criticism from digital rights groups such as Access Now, Internet Freedom Foundation and others. AIC further reasoned that encryption methods were necessary as it helped increase the trust of users and also maintain online privacy.
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