New Delhi (AFP)
India on Thursday demanded WhatsApp's response to a spy scandal, when the government is itself accused by the opposition of using malware installed on this encrypted e-mail service. by Facebook, to spy on citizens.
New Delhi has asked WhatsApp "to clarify what violations have occurred, and what it is doing to protect the privacy of millions of Indian citizens," wrote on Twitter the Minister of Information and Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
WhatsApp announced Tuesday that it has filed a complaint against NSO group, an Israeli company with a spurious reputation, specializing in spyware, which is accused of helping governments spy on activists and journalists.
In India, WhatsApp's largest market with 400 million active users, 20 activists, journalists and lawyers have recently been informed by WhatsApp that their phones have been spied on for two weeks last May, according to Indian media reports.
According to the Indian Express, WhatsApp had confirmed that a number of Indian users had been targeted by Pegasus spyware, which was installed on their devices and transmitted data to hackers.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, on the other hand, refuted accusations against the government, to which members of the opposition reproach to have used this malicious program to spy on its citizens.
"A government that spies its journalists / activists / opposition leaders, and treats its own citizens as criminals, has lost the right to lead our democracy," said a spokesman for the main opposition Congress, Randeep Surjewala.
Human rights activists and dissidents say Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government is intimidating them for criticizing his policies.
Narendra Modi, prime minister since 2014, has banned hundreds of non-governmental organizations and removed subsidies to many others.
WhatsApp admitted in May that it had been infected with spyware giving access to smartphone content, and accuses NSO of targeting "100 human rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society around the world".
In all, 1,400 devices were infected from April 29 to May 10, in various countries including the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico, according to the complaint filed in federal court.
© 2019 AFP