Telecom bill Passed In Lok Sabha In The Absence Of 2/3 Of The Opposition
Without getting enough scope for debate and discussions for the bill, Lok Sabha on Wednesday, December 20, passed the telecommunication bill, after a mere 63 minutes of debate on the contentious bill. Following the mass suspension of the opposition MPs, which reached 144 on Wednesday, the bill didn’t see adequate debate on the new bill making overhaul to the framework of the telecommunication laws in India. The discussion in the parliament began at 4:57 pm and ended by 6 pm, making it a total of 63-minute discussion in the Lok Sabha.
The new legislation permits authorities to intercept or block messages sent between any individuals on any particular subject in the event of a public emergency or the interest of public safety.
Though the new bill came after many rounds of consultations, various stakeholders have criticized it noting that it could potentially lead to mass surveillance and would pose a threat to online privacy.
However, it is not known if the new bill covers Over-the-Top (OTT) communication services such as WhatsApp, creating doubt about the end-to-end encryption offered by many platforms.
The new bill has added new terms and definitions, which were not there before, and here is a comprehensive detail on the new telecommunication bill and its clauses
Critical telecommunication infrastructure: the government can now notify a telecom company as a ‘critical communication network’ if that network’s disruption creates a draining impact on the security of the nation of the public. The bill also empowers the government to set the standard, security norms, and upgrade procedures for such networks.
Authorisation: this is the permission of the government granted to the authorized entities who want to provide telecom services and operate their network in India.
Telecommunication identifier: this is a new addition, which is a combination of digits, characters and symbols used to uniquely identify a user, a telecommunication service, a telecommunication network, elements of a telecommunication network, telecommunication equipment and authorised entities. The bill will be applicable to applications like WhatsApp and Gmail, as per the definition of the bill.
Telecommunication: the bill defines telecommunication as the transmission, emission or reception of messages by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. The message is defined as sign, text, sound, image, video, data, stream, or any information sent by telecommunication.
Digital Bharat Nidhi: the new bill proposes to rename the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to the Digital Bharat Nidhi. It also proposes to expand the usage of the fund to support research and development of telecom technology, telecom pilot projects, rollout of telecom products, and aid in providing access to urban and rural zones.
However, by giving the government more surveillance power even in messaging applications, the new bill could potentially change the encryption assurance in applications like WhatsApp. In addition, the government will have the power to ban platforms selectively, the power to shut down the internet and take temporary possession, the power to issue alerts and the power to collect traffic data stored in the telecommunication networks.
