Spyware incident may fuel tension between WhatsApp and government

Pegasus spyware controversy takes a new turn with senior government officials reportedly raising concerns over WhatsApp's de silence on hacking incidents in spite of multiple rounds of discussion with centre since June. WhatsApp on Thursday revealed 1,400 Indians including journalists and human rights activists fell prey to WhatsApp spying by unkwn entities. While attack was stopped and impacted users were informed about incident in May, WhatsApp maintained a pin drop silence over impact on Indian users, until this week when Facebook finally filed a lawsuit against NSO Group, an Israeli company behind spyware.

What is Pegasus?

Pegasus is developed by an Israeli software company NSO Group. Once activated (in this incident, by exploiting a vulnerability in video calling), Pegasus could re text messs, track calls, collect passwords, trace phone location from WhatsApp and certain or apps as well. NSO Group maintains its sole purpose is to provide techlogy to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement ncies to "help m fight terrorism and serious crime."

India plans to revise existing policies to regulate social media apps and online services on grounds of 'unimaginable disruption to democratic polity.' In its affidavit filed in Supreme Court, Ministry of Electronics and Information Techlogy (MeitY) is in favour of holding online platforms like TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, among ors accountable for activities done by ir users. se new rules will also impose ditional obligations on companies to enable tracing out originator of content in question, within 72 hours of such requests me by any government ncy.

RE | WhatsApp: Agree with India on need to safeguard citizens’ privacy

Facebook has alrey filed a case in India, preventing government ncies from forcing WhatsApp to break its end-to-end encryption. However, entire Pegasus spyware fiasco may weaken Facebook's case.

A senior government official who did t wish to be named questioned wher WhatsApp's silence on hacking incident h anything to do with its plans to prevent authorities from enforcing measures on traceability and accountability. government is also questioning timing of WhatsApp's disclosure of hacking incident, particularly against backdrop of Centre seeking three months from Supreme Court to come up with rules to curb misuse of social media in country.

A threat to WhatsApp payments?

It remains to be seen how Pegasus spyware incident affects WhatsApp's plans to launch its UPI-enabled payments system in country. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains hopeful about being able to launch WhatsApp Pay in India soon, that possibility w seems out of question given Pegasus spyware scare among Indians.

WhatsApp's UPI-based payment service is awaiting regulatory approval from Reserve Bank of India (RBI). WhatsApp h earlier said it hopes to roll out full-fledged payment services in India later this year. Once launched, WhatsApp payments will compete with likes of Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe.

(With ncy inputs)