High Court in the Indian state of Karnataka, has now directed the Federal Government to initiate proceedings aimed at blocking Proton Mail, the encrypted email service, across India. This comes after a legal petition was filed in Bengaluru accusing Proton Mail of being involved in facilitating cyber harassment against its employees.
The petitioners claim that Proton Mail was being misused to send abusive and obscene emails targeting senior female employees at the company. The emails allegedly contained explicit content, including AI-generated deepfake images, and were circulated to employees, clients, vendors, and even competitors. The firm argued that the harassment caused serious reputational damage to the company and emotional distress to its employees.
At the heart of this case is Proton Mail’s use of end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the sender and recipient of an email can access its contents. Encrypted email providers like Proton Mail offer anonymity and end-to-end encryption, which makes it nearly impossible for even the provider to access user data. While this is a boon for privacy advocates, it becomes a major hurdle for law enforcement when the platform is misused. In this particular instance, Proton Mail’s encryption made it difficult for Indian authorities to trace the perpetrators of the alleged harassment, leading to the legal action.
The court was informed that Proton Mail’s servers are located outside of India, making it difficult for Indian law enforcement to compel the service to hand over user data. Proton Mail has long been positioned as a privacy-focused email provider, and this has created a legal gray area when it comes to responding to law enforcement requests. The petitioners argued that Proton Mail’s refusal to cooperate with Indian police investigations exacerbated the situation.
In response to these claims, the Karnataka High Court has ordered the Indian government to initiate legal action under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. “Mandamus issued to respondents to initiate proceedings under Section 69A of the IT Act read with Rule 10… to block Proton Mail,” the court commented on the matter, adding that until the proceedings are concluded, all URLs identified as offensive in the petition must be blocked without delay. The provision allows the government to block online content and services if they are deemed harmful to national security or public order.
During the court proceedings, Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath, representing the Indian government, stated that the authorities would comply with the court’s directive to block Proton Mail. However, he also pointed out that any request for user data from Switzerland must go through formal legal channels, such as the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between India and Switzerland. This is not the first time Proton Mail has faced the music in India. Last year, the Tamil Nadu police requested that the Indian government block the service after it was allegedly used to send hoax bomb threats to schools. However, despite these concerns, Swiss authorities intervened to prevent the blocking order from being enforced, citing Switzerland’s strong privacy laws.
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