Make the interception mandatory (as prescribed for telecommunications companies) can weaken the protective architecture of communication applications or expose them to “illegal actors,” Trai said in opinions that were immediately criticized by mobile operator group COAI. Accusing the regulator of going against a level playing field, COAI alleged that OTT players “remain a threat to national security” in the absence of such scrutiny.
Trai’s long-awaited recommendations vary entirely with the firm position taken by the telecommunications and IT minister. Ravi Shankar Prasad who has advocated time and time again for greater control and scrutiny.
This is not the right time, says Trai
Telecommunications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had even asked WhatsApp to reveal the original source of the illegal messages and help intercept the creators of incendiary communications after the series of lynchings across the country in 2018.
Social media platforms like Facebook have been among the biggest broadcasters of news and information for quite some time and now they even plan to launch news services. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why they should not be held responsible for the content they carry as any other medium would. If a newspaper or television channel can face charges for, say, inciting violence or hostility between communities because of something they print or broadcast, how does it make sense that the same content on a different medium should not invite any action other than ask them to delete? that? It is time for our laws to adjust to the reality that social media is just another form of media and must be regulated and maintained to the same standards as any other.
However, the American instant messenger, a company of the Facebook group, has flatly refused to do so, saying that all communication on its platform is encrypted. Trai did not name any companies in his recommendations on the ‘regulatory framework for over-the-top communication services (OTT)’ that were presented to the secretary of telecommunications Anshu Prakash. The government will take a final opinion on the recommendations. OTT communication services they are basically those Internet applications that travel in the network of mobile operators and are competitors of telecommunications companies when it comes to providing voice communications and messaging.
“Trai recommends that it is not an opportune time to recommend a comprehensive regulatory framework for various aspects of services called OTT services, beyond the currently prescribed laws and regulations in force,” said Trai. “The matter may be examined again when more clarity emerges in international jurisdictions, particularly the study carried out by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ”. Trai said that while some jurisdictions have begun to explore possibilities to regulate “some aspects of some OTT services” through legal and technical measures, these efforts are still in an incipient stage and the vast majority of jurisdictions and the ITU are still studying. various aspects of OTT. .
On the subject of security and privacy, Trai said “no regulatory interventions are required … at the moment.” He said that the architecture of OTT communication services has been evolving to protect end users and that encryption technology has been implemented in a way that prevents intermediaries from getting the communication in clear text or in an intelligible form. “The imposition of any requirement to attend to obtain the details of the communication in an intelligible form or in clear text would lead to a change in the entire architecture of said OTT services that may not provide the same level of protection that is offered today or would require introduce provisions that can make the agents involved in communication vulnerable to illegal actors, ”said Trai.
COAI was unhappy. “While telcos have to adhere to a strict licensing and regulatory framework … no licensing / regulatory framework is applicable to those OTT players. We consider that these OTT services are substitutable to the services provided by telecommunications companies and, therefore, there is a case of unequal conditions ”, said COAI DG SP Kochhar.
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