Just a day after the appointment of Ashwini Vaishnaw as the new IT minister, Whatsapp has blinked and said that it will not implement its new privacy policy in India before the Personal Data Protection Bill comes into force. “We have said we won’t enforce it till the bill comes out. If Parliament allows it, we will do it. Commitment is that: I will do nothing till the law comes in. If it doesn’t, bad luck…I’ve taken it off till the law comes into effect. Either we fit in or we don’t,” Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of Whatsapp, told the Delhi High Court.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, who also has the charge of Ministries of Railways and Communications, is a technocrat and entrepreneur, and he understands very well the loopholes that Big Tech companies try to exploit to bypass the law of the land.
On the very day of his appointment, Vaishnaw sent out a warning to Big Tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon without even naming them. “The law of the land should be abided by everyone,” he said.
Vaishnaw also told reporters, “There are a lot of synergies in telecommunications, IT and railways and I will be working to ensure that the PM’s vision is implemented.”
This is a big victory for the Indian government as Whatsapp, owned by Facebook that also owns Instagram, has agreed to abide by Indian rules. Whatsapp said that it will implement the new privacy policy only if the same is allowed in the Personal Data Protection Bill which is expected to be scheduled in the Monsoon session of the parliament.
As reported by TFI, after the deadline to adhere to the new guidelines elapsed last month on May 26, Big Tech companies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, and Twitter ran the risk of losing their status as “intermediaries” and could have become liable for criminal action if they did not comply with the revised regulations.
Initially, all the aforementioned companies tried to stall adhering to the policy change, the government used an iron fist to ensure that they abide by the law of the land. Twitter was served a stern message when Delhi Police paid a surprise visit to its office while a flustered Facebook took pre-emptive measure and soon the microblogging platform lost its intermediary status in India too as it failed to comply with the Indian law.
Although Facebook sent its subsidiary WhatsApp to the court to sue the government, it had to return empty-handed and accepted the government’s decision. And now it has decided to put the new privacy policy on hold till the Personal Data Protection Bill is passed.
Similarly, Google dropped its charade timidly, and eventually, the platform had to come around the decision as well.
The tech giants are saddened that their ambitions of creating a digital colony in India have been quashed by the Indian government, especially after the appointment of Ashwini Vaishnaw as the new IT Minister. And the successive victory of the Indian government against big tech will encourage the countries around the world to initiate action against these players which are establishing digital monopolies, while the Biden administration continues shielding them.