Is it just me, or the government of India is cracking down of all end to end encryption apps like signal and element.
Cause I guy who works for the police came to my house and asked whether I use signal and element
Is it just me, or the government of India is cracking down of all end to end encryption apps like signal and element.
Cause I guy who works for the police came to my house and asked whether I use signal and element
It’s true Indian government has banned Element and other Apps and forced Signal, WhatsApp and other such apps to have a local representative so that they can arrest someone and force their will. But there is one silver lining, it is that these politicians don’t fully understand how open source software works. So just banning Element app doesn’t do much I can switch to schildiChat or just download element source code and change the name and logo and boom I’m back in.
And also most of their app bans are just requests sent to Google play store and Apple App store, You can always download from FDroid or from other sources
and there is no real way they can enforce these stupid laws.
They started going through chats on traffic stops, but there are ways to avoid that also
If you are interested and want to support then you can donate to https://internetfreedom.in/ or if not possible just share the word.
Wait wait wait when did Element get banned? I did not know this. Also you’re right, these politicians are faaaar from understanding how Open-Source works or even how software works lol, this is just pathetic at this point. Also the traffic stops point, when did this start happening? and in which states? This is scary and extremely concerning.
Hyderabad also a fun fact Indian supreme Court has ruled that WA messages are not admissible in court.
https://internetfreedom.in/iff-assisted-in-sending-a-legal-notice-to-the-hyderabad-police-commissioner-regarding-search-of-mobile-phones-for-keywords-such-as-ganja/
Apps were banned only in Jammu and Kashmir
https://tuta.com/blog/apps-banned-india
Really ironic but also sad cause it shows the dysfunction of the Indian legal system, laws are there but proper enforcement is not and the distrust people have in the police is for a good reason. Laws are subject to the ruling party’s will, it can be legal when it benefits them and illegal when it does not and the loopholes some of them have is another story unto itself lmao
Oh yeah I knew that, I thought another ban was enforced which made it nation-wide. My bad!
Wait what! When did this happen. I live in India and just saw the element app on the play store.
I have also yet to see this but then again this seems like something the conservative (read authoritarian) government could do
What in the actual fuck?
Authoritarian countries do that all the time. The only surprising thing is that a supposed democratic country is doing it.
Why would anyone leave any chat history if this is the case?
The average person is quite careless.
Depending how how suspicious they get, they might sometimes plug in your phone into a computer and copy everything, there might be traces left behind when you “delete” something.
Government policies/procedures don’t always make sense. (Example: The USA’s TSA misses most prohibited items at airports, including weapons)
Or may its a way to psychologically intimidate people into not doing any act of dissent.