India’s rights activists slam new telecoms law as ‘grave threat to fundamental rights’
- The new law grants the government the ability to take over telecoms services and access encrypted messaging data for national security reasons
- But activists point out a lack of sufficient legal oversight for such a move, and that the government could use it to ‘target political opponents’
One key aspect of the legislation – the Telecommunications Act – highlighted by activists is that it grants the government the ability to take over telecoms services and access encrypted messaging data for national security reasons. A lack of sufficient legal oversight or approval mechanisms for these powers has raised serious concerns.
The bill also redefines over-the-top services as telecommunications, subjecting them to the same government regulations as traditional telecoms services, and introduces a non-auction route for satellite spectrum allocation, among other provisions.
“This act is extremely troubling in updating a colonial-era instrument concerning telecommunications in India. It significantly continues [the previous act’s] powers and increases them in many ways,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia policy director and senior international counsel at digital rights non-profit Access Now.
The legislation has broad powers that could “be used to target political opponents and critics”, said Rahul Narayan, a partner at New Delhi law firm Chandhiok and Mahajan.
“Hypothetically speaking, the surveillance powers, its insistence on biometric identification before provision of services, and the attack on encryption all provide a powerful toolkit to target any person. Even anonymous speech would be gravely threatened,” he said, while noting that was a worst-case scenario and may not be the norm.
“Civil liberties require proper procedure and safeguards to avoid misuse,” he added.