cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11998237
The IT ministry has reportedly decided to issue an order blocking end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the government is planning to block the email service at the request of the Tamil Nadu police over a hoax bomb threat sent to at least thirteen private schools in Chennai on February 8. The report says that the decision to block ProtonMail was taken at a meeting of the 69A blocking committee on Wednesday (February 14).
A Proton spokesperson told the publication that the company has received the request from MeitY “a few days ago”. “We are currently working to resolve this situation and are investigating how we can best work together with the Indian authorities to do so. We understand the urgency of the situation and are completely clear that our services are not to be used for illegal purposes. We routinely remove users who are found to be doing so and are willing to cooperate wherever possible within international cooperation agreements,” the spokesperson said.
When the people who know nothing about technology make the decisions about technology.
Wish our government officials had a basic understanding of tech so they could see this and go “the fuck are we doing?”
Strange they’re willing to block a service for ‘allowing’ this but somehow can’t be bothered to figure out their giant scam industry.
Actions have been taken against the scam industry, the offices have been raided by police officers several times but once again the collective action is too little and too late
So… If someone did it the old fashioned way by telephone from a public phone, or sent out a letter, or shared leaflets, would we be looking at disconnecting public phones, stopping the postal service and banning home printers?
By applying Indian government logic, yes! this just in, Microwaves have been banned after a bomb was sent inside a microwave…
If you don’t receive the email containing the bomb threat because you banned the email domain, does the bomb really exist?
No! The bomb just goes away. Checkmate, terrorists.
Has real ‘stop testing for covid to reduce case count’ energy.
Wonder if they’d block Gmail, too.
Seeing how google will hand all user data when asked to, yeah that’s not gonna happen unfortunately
Btw Internet Freedom Foundation (or the IFF) filed several RTI requests (RTI = Request to information) regarding this situation. If anyone wants to follow their progress then here’s their Mastodon account: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]
The IFF is a highly trustworthy and well respected organization that fights for Indians digital rights and democratic freedoms. They’ve done a lot of good work over the years, they even helped VLC to get unblocked when it was banned in India.
Here’s their toot mentioning the situation with Proton Mail: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]/111935324571240375
Oh didn’t know about IFF. Thanks for dropping the link! :)
You’re welcome!
Pathetic authoritarian fucks ugggh… Please remember… India is NOT a democratic counterbalance to China. They’re just like China. The only difference is that they both hate each other.
Mother of Democracy they said…
Never heard “Mother of Democracy”, but I’ve heard a lot of “the world’s largest democracy”. Yea, bs either ways.
bs for sure
I swear these dumb bureaucrats and politicians would’ve banned torrent, tor, etc. too if it was possible.
Torrenting sites are banned/blocked on many ISPs and on Jio VPNs are blocked too so you’re not that far off
So I can’t use Proton Mail anymore?
If it gets blocked then no but you can continue using it either through a VPN, a proxy server or through Tor. You could also use a different DNS to unblock the website for yourself (Incase it gets blocked)
Thanks
You’re welcome
After WhatsApp and Telegram duh.
