New Delhi: The Union IT ministry decided on Wednesday (February 14) to block the Proton Mail email service, the Hindustan Times reported, adding that the ministry has not yet issued a final blocking order.
HT learnt that the ministry decided to block Proton Mail after a request by the Tamil Nadu police, which said it was unable to trace the perpetrators behind a hoax bomb threat that was sent to 13 schools in the Chennai area last week using the service.
A nodal officer representing the Tamil Nadu police said yesterday that attempts to trace the perpetrators’ IP addresses and to seek help from the Interpol did not bear fruit, the newspaper also reported.
It added that the officer was present at a committee meeting held as part of the online content blocking process relating to Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
Representatives of the IT ministry noted during the meeting that receiving information from Proton Mail on criminal matters was a recurrent problem, HT reported.
Proton, the Swiss software company that offers the Proton Mail service, told HT that the IT ministry had notified it about a “potential block” and that it was considering a way to work with Indian authorities in order to resolve the issue.
Russia’s government also decided to block Proton Mail in 2020, saying Proton did not provide it with information on users who allegedly sent fake bomb threats, Reuters reported.
“We condemn this block as a misguided measure which only serves to harm ordinary people,” Proton had said then in a statement. It also said this to HT about the Indian IT ministry’s reported decision.
“Blocking access to Proton is an ineffective and inappropriate response to the reported threats. It will not prevent cybercriminals from sending threats with another email service and will not be effective if the perpetrators are located outside of India,” Proton also told HT.
Emails sent through Proton Mail are end-to-end encrypted, which means that no one except those communicating with each other using the service can read the messages they exchange.
The service is popular among some journalists and activists for its focus on privacy and encryption.
On its website, Proton says the data of its email service users are “protected by strict Swiss privacy laws”.
Under Swiss law, Proton is also required to “cooperate with law enforcement agencies on criminal investigations within the framework of Swiss laws and privacy regulations”, which can include transmitting data via Swiss authorities.
Proton also offers virtual private network – popularly known as VPN – as well as password manager and cloud storage services.
The IT ministry’s reported decision comes just a few days after the Union government issued a notice to The Caravan magazine under Section 69A of the IT Act, asking it to take down an article covering allegations of torture and murder against the Indian Army.
The magazine was told that if it fails to take down the article from its website within 24 hours, the entire website would be taken down.
Legal news website Article14 in a recent report cited experts as saying that the Union government has dodged procedural safeguards while passing orders to block online content.
“These procedural safeguards are enough if followed diligently … But you will see in practice that they are indiscriminately abandoned,” Radhika Roy, counsel at the Internet Freedom Foundation, told Article14.
