Freecalling will stop in WhatsApp? Know the facts of the new bill
For some time now there has been a discussion that WhatsApp , Zoom , Skype , Google Duo etc. services will stop the way free calling can be done - let us know the facts behind this news.
Last week, the Indian government introduced a new bill related to telecom. This bill, if passed into law, will replace the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933 and the Telegraph Wires Act of 1950. All these laws are very old and new technology has completely changed the world of telecommunication , hence it is necessary to bring new laws into force. This bill , after deliberations and amendments , is likely to become law in the next 6 to 10 months.
As new technology blurs the lines between voice calling (mobile calling on a regular phone or smartphone) and data calling (calling over the Internet on WhatsApp and other apps) , the new law provides for uniform restrictions on companies offering both. This means that companies such as WhatsApp , Zoom , Skype, etc. will also have to take a telecom license from the Indian government like Airtel , Jio, etc. - There is no clarity at this time whether these companies will discontinue the free service or not.
Another provision of the bill , relevant to us, is related to KYC of users of each such service. Accordingly, when a message is sent to any other person on this type of platform, it will be mandatory for the person receiving the message to tell who sent the message to him. This means that on all platforms such as WhatsApp , Twitter , Telegram , Facebook, etc., it will be mandatory for these companies to ensure that their users register with their correct names. Nowadays, people register on services like Twitter with completely false names and then start trolling or spreading fake news on such platforms. Similarly, on WhatsApp, everyone has to register with their real phone number , but then when any message is forwarded, its origin , who first circulated that message cannot be known. The government wants to reach such roots.
So far, all these companies have raised the issue of user privacy and end-to-end encryption to identify the user correctly. The government has tried to crack down on social media companies before. Now it remains to be seen how successful this attempt is.
Comments
Post a Comment