{"id":251947,"date":"2023-07-13T20:36:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=251947"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:53:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T07:23:48","slug":"is-it-possible-to-have-partial-app-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/is-it-possible-to-have-partial-app-bans\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it possible to have partial app bans?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cIs it possible to have partial app bans?\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 13th July 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Indian Polity<\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/strong> Right to Internet<\/p>\n

News- Telecom<\/strong> Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought inputs on having \u201cselective\u201d app bans instead of internet shutdowns<\/p>\n

What is the history of Internet shutdowns in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Internet shutdowns are imposed in States and districts across India from time to time to maintain law and order.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has a straining effect on access to education, work, banking, and information. As such, the government has sought to impose restrictions rather than complete shutdown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Manipur<\/strong>, authorities have gradually loosened long-term restrictions.<\/p>\n

How would the TRAI move work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The approach suggested by TRAI would require telecom operators and messaging app firms like WhatsApp to cooperate with each other<\/strong> and stop access to services during a shutdown.<\/p>\n

What are the past efforts towards app regulation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 2015 and 2018, the TRAI had held consultations<\/strong> on regulating messaging apps.<\/p>\n

Telecom operators argued in favour<\/strong> as messaging apps bypass stringent security and surveillance regulations.<\/p>\n

However, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the TRAI rejected this argument. Later, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology<\/strong> amended the IT Rules, 2021<\/strong> to trace the original sender of a forwarded message.<\/p>\n

What about regulating or blocking VPNs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The government has been showing concerns against Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)<\/strong> because of its encrypted nature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

VPN firms usually route data<\/strong> through servers located in another country, and change the IP addresses to evade detection and blocking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) published directions in 2022 <\/strong>requiring VPN firms to retain records<\/strong> of users from India led to shifting of servers located in India.<\/p>\n

However, Internet rights activists<\/strong> say that blocking VPNs would be a damaging move for online privacy specially for journalists, whistle-blowers and activists<\/strong> as it protects them from surveillance and censorship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cIs it possible to have partial app bans?\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 13th July 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Indian Polity Relevance: Right to Internet News- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought inputs on having \u201cselective\u201d app bans instead of internet shutdowns What is the history… Continue reading Is it possible to have partial app bans?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-251947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}