Mint Explainer: Why Meta and Signal are sweating over the telecom bill

livemint.com:

statement issued soon after the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha, it said: “IAMAI hails the Bill as progressive especially since internet companies have been decisively kept out of the ambit of the final version of the Bill… The Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha now excludes email, internet-based communication services, broadcasting services, machine to machine communication services and over-the-top communication services, as suggested by IAMAI." However, Meta’s head of India public policy, Shivnath Thukral, cautioned that the government could choose to apply the proposed legislation to OTT services at a future date. In an internal note as well as a letter to the communications minister, he wrote that the definitions of ‘telecommunications services’, ‘telecommunications identifier’ and ‘messages’ could be interpreted to implicitly include OTT services, and that the government could use delegation powers to do so.

Meta owns WhatsApp and has messaging services on Facebook and Instagram as well. Subsequently, Signal Foundation, Mozilla, Proton and several other global digital service providers that provide end-to-end encryption of messages wrote to the minister that the proposed legislation imperils encryption, amplifies unchecked powers of the government to impose internet shutdowns, and enhances surveillance.

They want the government to withdraw the Bill and initiate inclusive, sustained consultation on the new draft to incorporate rights-respecting amendments to protect encryption, privacy and security, and unimpeded access to an open, secure, and free internet. These service providers have also stated that the threat to end-to-end encryption may result in secure services choosing to not operate in India.