this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11998237

The IT ministry has reportedly decided to issue an order blocking end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the government is planning to block the email service at the request of the Tamil Nadu police over a hoax bomb threat sent to at least thirteen private schools in Chennai on February 8. The report says that the decision to block ProtonMail was taken at a meeting of the 69A blocking committee on Wednesday (February 14).

A Proton spokesperson told the publication that the company has received the request from MeitY “a few days ago”. “We are currently working to resolve this situation and are investigating how we can best work together with the Indian authorities to do so. We understand the urgency of the situation and are completely clear that our services are not to be used for illegal purposes. We routinely remove users who are found to be doing so and are willing to cooperate wherever possible within international cooperation agreements,” the spokesperson said.

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[–] [email protected] 104 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

When the people who know nothing about technology make the decisions about technology.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they should shut down phone service when someone calls in a bomb threat and shut down the postal service when someone mails one in too.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Shut down truck company because someone drove a truck into a mass of people.

[–] Stewbs 7 points 9 months ago

Wish our government officials had a basic understanding of tech so they could see this and go "the fuck are we doing?"

[–] [email protected] 86 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Strange they're willing to block a service for 'allowing' this but somehow can't be bothered to figure out their giant scam industry.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Scams in India primarily target foreign nations while bringing cash into the country that then gets spent in the local economy.

As long as they're not targeting others within india, the authorities have little incentive to stop them.

That's before you get to the corruption poisoning the investigations/prosecutions that do happen.

[–] Stewbs 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They will target anyone they can get sadly, Indians are not exempted from this and are often times, the primary targets

[–] Stewbs 7 points 9 months ago

Actions have been taken against the scam industry, the offices have been raided by police officers several times but once again the collective action is too little and too late

[–] Gazumi 48 points 9 months ago (2 children)

So..... If someone did it the old fashioned way by telephone from a public phone, or sent out a letter, or shared leaflets, would we be looking at disconnecting public phones, stopping the postal service and banning home printers?

[–] Stewbs 19 points 9 months ago

By applying Indian government logic, yes! this just in, Microwaves have been banned after a bomb was sent inside a microwave....

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Don't give them ideas!

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Pathetic authoritarian fucks ugggh... Please remember... India is NOT a democratic counterbalance to China. They're just like China. The only difference is that they both hate each other.

[–] Stewbs 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Mother of Democracy they said....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Never heard "Mother of Democracy", but I've heard a lot of "the world's largest democracy". Yea, bs either ways.

[–] Stewbs 3 points 9 months ago

bs for sure

[–] model_tar_gz 31 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Wonder if they’d block Gmail, too.

[–] Stewbs 13 points 9 months ago

Seeing how google will hand all user data when asked to, yeah that's not gonna happen unfortunately

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Lol for what they are open as they get

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait till they ban talking for threatening verbally

[–] Stewbs 2 points 9 months ago

Wait till they ban staring cause it's intimidating!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I swear these dumb bureaucrats and politicians would've banned torrent, tor, etc. too if it was possible.

[–] Stewbs 12 points 9 months ago

Torrenting sites are banned/blocked on many ISPs and on Jio VPNs are blocked too so you're not that far off

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

India has aldready banned vpn's on many carriers

[–] CrayonRosary 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you don't receive the email containing the bomb threat because you banned the email domain, does the bomb really exist?

No! The bomb just goes away. Checkmate, terrorists.

[–] june 8 points 9 months ago

Has real ‘stop testing for covid to reduce case count’ energy.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Isn't that a bit overkill.

[–] Stewbs 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

It really is but who knows what goes on the minds of out government's officials lol

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What goes on the minds of government officials: “Oooh! I can use this as an excuse to take away the rights of our people under the guise of security!”

[–] agent_flounder 6 points 9 months ago

This person gets it. ☝🏻

[–] Stewbs 3 points 9 months ago

Yep, that's sadly true

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

I imagine this is something they wanted to do beforehand, and this event gave them "just" cause to pull the trigger.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

The current political party in power wants to turn India into a fascist surveillance state.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

a bit? It's not just a bit overkill, this is absolutely brain dead.

[–] Stewbs 21 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Btw Internet Freedom Foundation (or the IFF) filed several RTI requests (RTI = Request to information) regarding this situation. If anyone wants to follow their progress then here's their Mastodon account: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]

The IFF is a highly trustworthy and well respected organization that fights for Indians digital rights and democratic freedoms. They've done a lot of good work over the years, they even helped VLC to get unblocked when it was banned in India.

[–] Stewbs 8 points 9 months ago

Here's their toot mentioning the situation with Proton Mail: https://mastodon.world/@[email protected]/111935324571240375

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Oh didn't know about IFF. Thanks for dropping the link! :)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] Stewbs 7 points 9 months ago

Hey there! Thank you so much for all the work you guys do, it's great to have an organization you can actually rely on to bring some amount of change <3

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

WOAH HI!!! YOU'RE AMAZING!!! <3

[–] Stewbs 2 points 9 months ago

You're welcome!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

Guys! I know how to get Gmail blocked in India!

[–] fne8w2ah 10 points 9 months ago

After WhatsApp and Telegram duh.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

So I can't use Proton Mail anymore?

[–] Stewbs 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If it gets blocked then no but you can continue using it either through a VPN, a proxy server or through Tor. You could also use a different DNS to unblock the website for yourself (Incase it gets blocked)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

You can easily circumvent this block with a VPN. Proton actually offers a free tier of their VPN service that is specifically designed for users that experience censorship: https://protonvpn.com/vpn/censorship

Proton Mail also has a Tor website: https://protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7ozyd.onion/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Stewbs 1 points 9 months ago

You're welcome

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

If this go through no . But yiu can use by using it in tor