Kolkata 2 November: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday found credence in her oft-repeated allegations of snooping by the Union government on digital privacy following recent allegations against Whatsapp on security breach.
On Saturday, Banerjee taking a queue from the recent allegations against WhatsApp of security breach, said: “I know that govt is using Israel’s NSO Group to watch activities of politicians, media, judges & other important personalities. It is wrong. You cannot capture privacy. Whats app had given information to CERT-IN a government agency in May about the breach of privacy .”
It may be mentioned here that, time and again, the chief minister had said that her phone has been tapped and reiterated the same on Saturday.
Banerjee’s statement comes at a time when internet freedom is in threat under the Modi government and there is a desperate cry by all the Opposition parties and civil society organisations to call for a ‘Save The Internet’ Movement.
Senior IT experts are of the opinion that the issue of internet freedom is under risk and the existing data protection laws under the IT Act are not enough. The Union government should amend the existing IT Act and bring more stringent laws to protect internet privacy.
Chayan Sinha, a senior IT engineer working at a reputed private software company, said: “We feel that the Union government should take up this matter seriously. There is a need to amend the existing IT Act and bring more stringent laws to protect internet privacy.”
According to senior IT experts, before installing any software to a social media platform, the company needs to properly evaluate it.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra said: “Whatsapp and govt engaged in shameful blamegame about when NSO leak was discovered. Point is who snooped on innocents and why is the govt scared of citizens?”
This is her tweet
According to BJP leaders , Trinamool Congress leaders are frightened by the rise of BJP in Bengal and that’s why they are trying to put false blame on Center .
Kailash Vijayvargiya national general secretary of BJP said ” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not concerned at the growing rise of the BJP workers being killed in several parts of the state .She is trying to make this non-issue an issue. We will continue to fight for the welfare of our workers who have lost their lives due to political violence in Bengal.”
According to latest Twitter Transparency Report, Twitter has received 474 data request from Indian governmental authorities for accessing tweet data from January to June 2019. Twitter releases this report semi- annually. The report mentioned that “the data includes the number of government requests received for account information, as well as the percentage of requests we complied with in whole or in part from India”. The trend saw that it’s increasing from January to June 2019.
The report was released amidst WhatsApp being snooped by Israeli software, raising questions on the security of digital privacy.
How Trinamool Congress reacted on the proposition of Net Neutrality
On May 5, 2015 leader of All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien called the attention of the Union Minister for Communications and IT in the House on the issue of Net Neutrality.
Trinamool Congress had pledged support to the issue of net neutrality in the month of April. The party took up the issue in Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour. At that time the TMC urged the Union government to make their stand clear on net neutrality.
On December 12, 2016 chief minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the Center regarding incident of hacking of accounts of journalists.
This is her tweet on this regard.