> This is basically an indirect validation that most non listed messaging apps supposedly offering e2e encryption such as Whatsapp or Signal have backdoors with access from any government asking for access.
More likely: the government doesn't want to cause 'too much' discomfort among ordinary citizens. The decision to not block popular apps such as WhatsApp is probably purely political.
> the government doesn't want to cause 'too much' discomfort among ordinary citizens
This! I've yet to meet an Indian who doesn't have WhatsApp and we all know that pretty much every Indian with a phone uses it. We're not talking about a little discomfort, we're talking a lot. There's almost half a billion users. Government can't bad WhatsApp without a major freakout, so they're going after small players. It wasn't long ago that even Signal AND WhatsApp were pushing back against these laws and what resulted is more Signal downloads (tens of millions of users in India)
National security trumps "discomfort to citizens" every time ... otherwise all of us would have revolted by now for wasting hours in airport because of the security checks.
> When did you last see offline protests against airport security theater?
Isn't that what I am saying too? We accept the huge discomfort because we feel it is important and in our national interest! However important WhatsApp is, it is just a platform. If it is killed by a ban, people will just migrate to another platform and that's a lot more easier to do than give up on the benefits of flying by air. The only reason WhatsApp is allowed to function is because they are willing to provide a backdoor to the indian government - and that's easy to do when all the communication goes through their server and they handle the keys.
Yes. It is said the Colonial British used to say The sun never sets in the British Empire.
In today's context with WhatsApp, The sun never rises without a billion GOOD MORNING messages and another billion GOOD MORNING TO YOU TOO replies on WhatsApp in India /s
I am an indian who doesn't use WhatsApp or Facebook. It has never inconvenienced me - only WhatsApp users are inconvenienced when I ask them to SMS or email me. If the government bans WhatsApp today, most indians will simply switch to RCS or other platforms.
More likely: the government doesn't want to cause 'too much' discomfort among ordinary citizens. The decision to not block popular apps such as WhatsApp is probably purely political.