Karnataka HC asks Centre to block Proton Mail in India

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to take steps to block Proton Mail in India after security threats were flagged by an affected company.

Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the judgment on a petition from M Moser Design Associated India Pvt Ltd, seeking a direction to the Union government to take such steps as are necessary to ban the use of Proton Mail in India.

The court issued the direction to the Centre to act under Section 69A of the IT Act, read with Rule 10 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards of Blocking Access of Information by Public).

The petitioner had sought relief after unidentified miscreants sent vulgar and sexually coloured and obscene emails about its employees to its client as well as other employees, causing widespread reputational damage.

The company informed the court that although its client had filed a police complaint to investigate the vulgar emails sent about its employee using Proton Mail, the law enforcement agencies were helpless as Proton Mail had declined to share details of the senders of the email.

Miscreants and anti-national elements had been using the email service in view of the anonymity it offered to users. The service had been used in the past to send bomb threats to schools. In view of the potential harm it could cause to the country’s security, a few countries, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, have banned Proton Mail services. Its servers are located in Switzerland and beyond the reach of the local law enforcement agencies, the company’s advocates said.

The website of the mail service even guides users on how to bypass monitoring by Indian authorities. The petitioner had flagged risks posed by the continued operation of Proton Mail in India, given the high degree of anonymity it offers to its users.

The judge asked the Centre to block the offending URLs till such time steps were initiated to block the mail service.