The Swiss-based Proton Mail (partner link) is one of the few privacy-focused encrypted email providers around that doesn't sell user data for profit or advertising purposes. Some countries have sought to ban it, with some successfully doing so.
Sadly, another country has joined the "Governments Allergic to Encrypted Email" list, with a court order in India now seeking a complete ban on Proton Mail.
What's happening: Acting on a petition filed by M Moser Design Associates, Justice M Nagaprasanna of Karnataka High Court has directed the Indian government to block Proton Mail.
The petitioner, M Moser Design Associates India Pvt Ltd, claimed that several of their female employees received multiple emails through Proton Mail containing objectionable content and AI-generated deepfakes of them.
This is not the first time Proton Mail has faced a ban in India. Last year, the Tamil Nadu police sought to ban the mail service after it was used to send bomb threats to schools in the state.
What to Expect: At the time of writing, Proton Mail was still working for me, which isn’t surprising. Big bureaucratic moves like this usually take time to roll out in India.
If you ask me, this move looks completely absurd.
Yes, I understand that many people were adversely affected due to someone or a group of people holding a grudge, but this doesn't mean you completely ban an email service used by many others.
Would they have done the same if it were Gmail? Outlook?, I don't think so. Plus, a bad actor like that will most likely pivot to some other email service to carry out their malicious attacks, so what is the point of a ban like that in the first place?
Also, I don't think Proton will be banned. It's not going to happen.
But, anyway, it is what it is. If someone attempts to stop the ban from happening, that would be a good thing. Otherwise, people will just use a VPN to get around this impending ban. 🙃
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