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Indian Government to block ProtonMail after bomb threats were sent using a ProtonMail account

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.

Stewbs OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

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/@internetfreedom@mas.to

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 OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

Here's their toot mentioning the situation with Proton Mail: https://mastodon.world/@internetfreedom@mas.to/111935324571240375

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

Well that's definitely one option, I guess...

Omega_Haxors ,

You mean the fascist Indian government? Yeah, they can get blasted.

aronkvh ,

I hope they ban WhatsApp if anyone sends a bomb threath trough WhatsApp

Undertaker ,

Next time send a letter. Letters will be banned.

Stewbs OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

let's ban phones next guys

shootwhatsmyname ,
@shootwhatsmyname@lemm.ee avatar

and brains too, very dangerous

RandoCalrandian ,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

Can’t have those things being used unregulated or unmonitored

shootwhatsmyname ,
@shootwhatsmyname@lemm.ee avatar

we should make like a scoring system that (without human involvement) determines what brains are the best and worst behaved, thus more likely to benefit their leaders. we could design our society to keep people so preoccupied on making their score better (through things not beneficial to themselves whatsoever) that they don’t have enough time to think about how completely alone and manipulated they feel (we don’t want them feeling that :). maybe down the road this score could be used for good things like improving the economy (selling access to third parties) and handling food and resource concerns (automated death row enrollment)

RandoCalrandian ,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

We’ll make it AI trained on all the “best” citizens, fully automatic!

merde ,
@merde@sh.itjust.works avatar

useless, unless they block protonVpn too

THE_MASTERMIND ,

Jio aldready does that

Stewbs OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

Other than Jio, idrk know of any ISP that does that

UnfortunateShort ,

Send a bomb threat from all major mail-providers any% speedrun anyone?

Seriously, as if no one ever send a threat from a throwaway Gmail account. The bullshit governments come up with to dismantle privacy...

Catsrules ,

Have you tried creating an account recently with any other providers? Almost all of them require a phone number of some kind. This creates a paper trail back to the owner.

LoveSausage ,

Lol. I can get a fake phone number or create a Gmail without any phone number blind drunk.

THE_MASTERMIND ,

Lol you can't if you use tor or vpn gmail will ask for a phone number

LoveSausage , (edited )

Use a public net /local coffee shop. Or one of the options above. Also No issue running stealth mode VPN ..

THE_MASTERMIND ,

In india public net is very rare

LoveSausage ,

Then get a fake number

THE_MASTERMIND ,

How my man you need an identity card that verifies through government database to get a sim in india.

LoveSausage ,

You don't need a sim to get a verification code. Here is a service I use https://sms-man.com/?ref=qPLi0ekHzn_c but plenty of free ones if you got the time to test 20 non working numbers to find one that works. Just Google temporary SMS or recieve SMS online

THE_MASTERMIND ,

I used to try these but gave up after spending too much time on those

LoveSausage ,

Well sms-man works fine

THE_MASTERMIND ,

Will try

Catsrules ,

Oh well please tell me. Have yet to find a way around creating a Gmail account without a valid phone number.

LoveSausage , (edited )

Well a few ways . Create it on a pixelphone running GOS thru the sandboxed playstore . I also believe it works on any phone running below android 5.

Get a fake number. Plenty of options on Google I use a paid service using Monero. Worth it , cost like 3 euro for a few hours, or a few cents for a one-time SMS.

UnfortunateShort ,

I recently did just that, even via VPN. They simply didn't ask me to. Maybe a regional thing?

UnfortunateShort ,

You will find services that provide you with a phone number that can be traced back to no one, if you dig a little... In some countries you can straight up just buy an eSIM with a false identity

Stewbs OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

The thing is, google will willingly hand over the data willy-nilly when asked for which proton does not so ofc they are the "bad guys" here. Hurrr, what do you mean that I cannot ask you to access any user's data at any time?! Also here's a funny thing, look at the comments in the article I linked lol, they do not understand how Proton operates and how the Swiss law applies to them

someguy3 ,

lolol

onlinepersona ,

So if it's sent with WhatsApp, they'll ban WhatsApp? That's the logic here, right?

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

venji10 ,

Did you just license your comment?

SomeBoyo ,

You don't?

ISOmorph ,

He does that on all his posts. I immediately recognize him each time he comments. I don't know if he's just trolling or he really thinks it's gonna keep the LLMs away. In any case, it's funny as shit.

TheAnonymouseJoker Mod ,

If it managed to make corporate AI public licensed, it would be a 4D chess move.

Stewbs OP ,
@Stewbs@lemmy.world avatar

that's amazing lmao

THE_MASTERMIND ,

Lol what a madlad

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