WEB DESK
The government on Thursday sought a detailed response from WhatsApp on the Israeli spyware that was allegedly used to target Indian diplomats, journalists and human rights activists. Union Minister Information Technology (IT), Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government has asked WhatsApp to explain what actions are being taken to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens.
In a series of tweets, Prasad also said that the government is committed to protecting the privacy of all Indian citizens. “Government of India is concerned at the breach of privacy of citizens of India on the messaging platform Whatsapp. We have asked Whatsapp to explain the kind of breach and what it is doing to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens,” he said.
“Govt is committed to protecting the privacy of all Indian citizens. Govt agencies have a well-established protocol for the interception, which includes sanction and supervision from highly ranked officials in central & state governments, for clearly stated reasons in the national interest,” he further added.
On Thursday, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said that human rights activists and Indian journalists were among those spied upon by unnamed entities using Israeli spyware Pegasus. WhatsApp said that it was suing one NSO group, an Israeli surveillance firm reportedly behind the technology, that was used to hack phones of about 1,400 users. WhatsApp, however, did not disclose, on whose behalf the alleged spying activity was carried out.
Refusing to divulge identities or the exact number of those targeted in India, WhatsApp said it had in May stopped a highly sophisticated cyber attack that exploited its video calling system to send malware to its users.
The mobile messaging giant said it had sent a special WhatsApp message to approximately 1,400 users that it has “reason to believe were impacted by this attack to directly inform them about what happened”.
While the messaging giant did not disclose the details or the number of people affected in India, a WhatsApp spokesperson said: “Indian users were among those contacted by us this week.” WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India alone accounts for about 400 million. In the past too, WhatsApp has drawn flak from the Indian government on the platform being misused for spreading misinformation that led to incidents of mob lynching.
The government has categorically told WhatsApp that it wants the platform to bring in a mechanism to enable tracing of originator of messages, a demand that WhatsApp has resisted citing privacy issues. The government is also working on tightening rules of social media companies in India that will increase the accountability of such platforms.
Reports claimed that human rights lawyer Nihalsing Rathod, Chhattisgarh-based activist Shalini Gera and former BBC journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary were among those who had admitted to being targeted by the spyware on WhatsApp. However, this could not be independently verified.
Denying allegations by WhatsApp, NSO had said it provides “technology to licenced government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime” and is not “designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists.” Meanwhile, the Indian IT Ministry on Thursday wrote to WhatsApp, seeking a detailed response by November 4.