Government monitoring of citizens’ WhatsApp messages

 Supreme Court on Friday said that the government wants to tap the  WhatsApp messages of citizens and sought its response within two weeks  over the same.  Taking a strong note of the Information and Broadcasting  Ministry’s decision to set up a social media hub for monitoring online  data, the top court observed that it will be ‘like creating a  surveillance state’. 

 The bench then said it is listing the matter on August 3, before the  opening of tender on August 20 and AG or any law officer for the  government will assist the court in the matter. The apex court  had on June 18, refused to accord urgent hearing on the plea that sought  stay on the central government’s move to set up a ‘Social Media  Communication Hub’, that would collect and analyse digital and social  media content. 

 The counsel for Moitra had said that the government is trying to monitor  the social media contents of individuals by tracking their social media  accounts such as those on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and their e-mails.