Twitter Inc. recently took the Indian government to court over what it views as “arbitrary” and “disproportionate” directions to take down content and block accounts. Last year, Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp began legal proceedings in New Delhi against India’s new internet rules demanding traceability of chats. Such an obligation, the messaging service contends, will force it to break its promise of end-to-end encryption, posing a serious risk to journalists and political activists.
Beyond those high-profile cases, though, a bigger worry is the deteriorating operational environment for ordinary digital businesses in India. Their rapid growth is routinely applauded, but the minefields they navigate on a daily basis don’t get enough attention.
That changed last week with Razorpay, an eight-year-old Bengaluru startup that acts as a payment gateway. The firm unwittingly kicked up a storm after it became known that it had been compelled to supply customer data in a police investigation against Alt News, a fact-checking website that annoys Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party no end.
On June 27, Mohammed Zubair, one of Alt News’ two co-founders, was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. The original complaint was over a tweet referencing an old Bollywood movie he sent more than four years ago. Since then, however, the Delhi Police has widened the charges to include alleged violation of a law that prohibits non-profits from...
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