Do business in India- In an exclusive interview with India Today, Minister of Information and Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said telecommunications companies are welcome to do business in India but must comply with the law. This comes between the Center line and Twitter with new IT rules.
During a dispute between the Center and Twitter on new government IT regulations for telecommunications mediators, Technology and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad answered key questions in an exclusive interview with India Today.
Q. What is the problem? Why can’t Twitter and the central government see one eye on these new laws?
A. Do business in India- India has about 130 crore users for Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and so on. We welcome this. People should use these forums and ask the government questions about them. We respect that. We have no problem with foreign companies doing business here.
Isn’t it true that sometimes pictures of women are loosely posted on social media? Sometimes people are insulted on social media? To combat this, we have asked the social media companies in the new IT rules to appoint a grievance redress officer so that Indian users have someone to complain to in such cases. They should not complain to anyone in the US. What’s the problem with that?
Q. But WhatsApp says they will have to break the last encryption of this and that will jeopardize their users’ right to privacy.
A. I want to ask a question. When US or UK governments request the origin of messages distributed by terrorists, these communications companies provide them. So why would they not do the same for the Indian government?
What about the new WhatsApp privacy policy? If so, is WhatsApp not interested in encryption?
As Minister of Justice, I want to say to all telecommunications companies that the digital empire of India will not be disturbed by any money. As an American for-profit company, it does business in India by all means. But follow the laws and constitution of India. Parliament and our institutions are just as important as any other nation.
