After the arrest of WhatsApp Group Admins by the Latur Police it has become necessary for all Netizens who want to use WhatsApp and more specifically create and become Admins, to protect themselves from possible prospect of arrest.
Though if the Police are knowledgeable, they should not arrest any WhatsApp admin for the content posted by the members, one cannot trust the Police to apply law properly.
We can also not trust the judiciary to understand the intricacies of WhatsApp usage.
Hence the possibility of Latur case being repeated is a distinct possibility.
Naavi in his bid to assist in the development of “Secure Digital India” has therefore suggested a model policy to be adopted by WhatsApp administrators which should satisfy the Police and Judiciary that the Admin is exercising “Due Diligence” and unless the admin himself is directly liable for any offence, he need not be charged with an offence attributed to a message that passes through the system.
As a part of the service of the Cyber Law Compliance Center, we therefore launch a model policy which can be adopted by any WhatsApp administrator.
We suppose that adoption of the policy will significantly mitigate the risk of the innocent group admins from being held liable.
There is also a suggestion that Cyber Law Compliance Center may provide assistance in grievance redressal through its e-ombudsman, or arbitration.in service.
The service of offering an adopted use of the policy document is a pilot service launched for the benefit of the Netizen community in India and can be accessed through CLCC page in the menu item. The WhatsApp admin policy would be offered free for non commercial purpose but a “Registration” and “Getting Permission” from Naavi is essential.
We suppose this will be one of the first steps towards making the Indian Information Security Framework (IISF-309) an open source document for the benefit of SMEs who want to be Cyber Law Compliant.
Please send your comments and suggestions.
Naavi
Both police and judiciary have failed to understand the complex architecture of the complex Internet functioning. We are looking at a legal limbo and chaos with the leap frogging of the Digital India where things can get more tricky if proper awareness of legal risks and education are not imparted to the law enforcement and judiciary. Social Media Law for Netizens is an eye opener in this area.