sweden, all robot is actually one of our most contributing reporters. it's all about having more content to offer to read us back at the live in stock home. the goal is for robots, human relations to be about collaboration, not competition. if we can try the robot to how for human operator together, they form a new team. they can be more productive in the industrial setting. robots may not be able to avoid harming a human body, but it might take a very hard headed employee to stop worrying about robot harming that your prospects. pull rece, i'll use their stock. ah, let's take you through some of the headlines here now just here now, but i mean that's in yeah. who's reco 12 year run is israel's prime minister could be coming to an end. rival math, tyler bennett, says he'll do everything possible to form

a coalition with opposition. leader is lap eat high force. it has more from west jerusalem. yet he needs to cement all of the bilateral deals with the various constituent parties in this coalition, as it gets formed. once all that is is signed and sealed and he has a promise of support. most likely from the foreseen strong united arab list party, the 1st palestinian is ready party that would be brought in to such an agreement or not sitting physically in government with the other coalition members. once all that is done, he then has to tell the president of the country, reuben ritalin, that he can form a government. and then the speaker of these are the parliament, the connect as it has up to a week to set up the vote, which will actually see that government instituted. molly has been suspended from an influential regional block house for a 2nd military coup in 9 months. west african leaders called for a return to democracy,

but did not re impose sanctions on by macau searches underway for a group of students, abducted by armed men and take nina in central line, syria, one person was killed. it's unclear how many pupils were taken. the lead is australia and new zealand playing down the differences in their approaches to china . prime minister scott morrison is in new zealand for his 1st meeting with just in the since the pandemic began. dunn's government has been criticized for being too soft on china. delegation from egypt led by its intelligence chief, is in gaza, talks with how they set to discuss reconstruction. after an 11 day conflict, israel's bombing campaign killed more than $200.00 palestinians and destroyed many buildings. vows headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera, off the inside story, stay with us to us. a call was of interest to people around the world. this is been

going on for a number of hours. what's the use of the report? so he's going into national perspective to try to claim your global audience. how's it could impact your life? this is an important part of the world, and it's very good at bringing the news to the world from here. what's app? take india's government, the court. the messaging app says new rules will force it so we can privacy protection. so it's free speech under threat. and how much is the debate driven by policy? this is inside story. ah, hello and welcome to the program. i'm hammer jim's room. a court battle is pitting whatsapp against the world's largest democracy. india is the biggest market for the

messaging service. nearly 400000000 users rely on it to communicate with friends and family. but like many online platforms, it has struggled to control the spread of misinformation. india recently passed new rules, forcing social media companies to identify the 1st person to send the message. what's ap argues this goes against privacy rights in the countries constitution. the company says it may have to stop encrypting messages, adding it's impossible to keep track of every message. some believe the digital media rules have a political motive. the issue with the being didn't. government doesn't like being defined and government us. it doesn't want more than one would be once these that wants to send. so wanted and in the sense india has a bit, try not to me. it likes to them to all the time to say what it wants to be in the position when the control soon want to join them

in they'll want something similar. andy as governing b, j. p, has often had a tense relationship with big tech. last month it ordered twitter and facebook to take down posts, which were critical of the governments covered $1000.00 response. official say, those posts were wrong, but critics argue with the government trying to control the narrative. that criticism was raised again a few days ago when police visited twitters offices in new delhi. officers reportedly wanted to know why a b, j. p spokesman had his tweet listed as manipulated media. the government ban, tick tock and 200 mostly chinese made apps last year, citing security concerns that happen shortly after skirmishes across the 2 countries disputed border. ah. all right, let's bring in our guess in new delhi, it's a sharma point. it co editor of course india, a digital news outlet in math for it in the netherlands, catalina, go on to assistant professor in private law and co manager of the muslim law and

tech lab at mass with university, and also in new delhi corona and monday, advocate to the supreme court of india and an international lawyer, a warm welcome to you all. it's a get. let me start with you today. i want to try to break some of this down for our audience. when we talk about traceability requirement and identification of 1st originator of information, what exactly do those terms mean? and what precisely is the indian government requiring from messaging platforms like watch app the hey, so of the guy and see a lot of things. but the most contentious is traceability. traceability basically means that it's a clause that will require social media platforms to locate the 1st order janitta often information. so at any time, if that is, for instance of what's up message that is found to be breaking any laws. the investigative authorities or the government can ask whatsapp to trace who the for

sender off this message or me more a photograph was. now what's up, see is that this is unconstitutional and against people's fundamental right to privacy. in fact, the messaging app is calling is this a new form of ma surveillance? because up in order to trace even one message, what's up basically have to trace every message because data and they don't know which is the one message that the government or the investigator will want them to trace of this would basically be effective effectively. it will be abuse to the reader to the users of what's up. and also it has a lot of flaws. for instance, if you simply download an image on your phone and you share it with someone when this message is traced, it will show as if you are the person who created this image or wrote this article, or let me know you're the person where this information originated from so that is

the main clause of contention that are of course are the clones of including the appointment awful grievance officer who should be local and in the sector catalina, if whatsapp were to eventually have to comply. when we know they're fighting this in court right now, but if they were to add traceability and allow it, what kind of precedent would that set for digital rights? i mean, other countries would surely start demanding this as well, right? so that's the, these are very interesting points and indeed we are now at a crossroads. what we see is that, and i can really tell the perspective of the european policy on this matter. we see that there is a trend to focus on digital monitoring. i think it was mentioning, basically master valence in the next 10 years. i think that this is going to be a very important policy point on every agenda around the world. what we have in europe, for instance, is the digital services act, where on the one hand,

questions about how do you deal with platform liability and how do you make sure that content that is illegal, gets tackled in a more efficient way. these are also things that are right now, falling under the digital services act. however, the, the type of an interference that poses is definitely lower and comparison to the indian legislation that was just this cost. so on the one hand, i agree that it is a very, it's a very, really questionable development and also controversial development. but i do believe that there are also some alternative regulatory regimes that we can talk about. corrina. how unusual a step is it that what's app is taking india's government to court? how significant is that? and do we have any idea how this might play out at this stage was taken? they didn't mean to go to the full. and i mean, that's all right,

we know it's small express i think it's true to said that this is right under stress anywhere on the group that we for lease platforms off from national. and when we look at medications, the, the brain, whether it's on feelings to crack down on his speech, whether it's failing to governance, when there's an over and closing on the sci fi, and then i'm justified. and we all in see what we're saying to why by no local law and off particular countries that are in accordance with ashley. i wonder, i just i think that these are where the john's national

international law issue i think we have to be very care go back. there are a huge number of problems. the new chevy can be one as the requirements for what sex to look at to the end to end and production potentially well they're not to do is to create a completely different set morgan, which is the but the problem for the move much much this is what the rules do exactly effectively creates a governmental mechanism for or digital content, whether it's from the media, tcs, streaming, and the oversight mechanism is able to but it contests and it's not the same legislation in

a law that has to be following the rules. the rules are made to be assumed on the commission technology act, but the commission cycle jack doesn't actually allow them to which of these rules are, are so broad that they're going to be on. yeah. and they're also on the box. so when you have criminal liability for you know, suddenly a potential can rely on digital. you may have gone under the control of me in the us in this way. and she's in my view. and also you can call them know much of the, the, the recon ventures and cookies by what is already catalina. i saw you nodding along to a lot of what the crew and i was saying there's, i want to see if you,

if you wanted to jump in. but also i wanted to ask you, because, you know, corina was talking about, you know, tech companies having to comply with, with various international law. how difficult is it for tech companies and social media and messaging platforms to strike that balance in complying with the laws of different governments, different countries around the world, but also trying to ensure freedom of expression and privacy for users. i would say that it says quite a mess. so if you are a platform that upgrade globally indeed, as you pointed out, there will be all of these domestic rules at national level, at federal level that platforms need to deal with. and as we were hearing earlier, so if what's app is going to have to, to, to really exercise a specific business model in india, but then a completely different business model in europe. and then again, a different business model and the united states that just, that's not also good for users because when we're speaking about what's up at least

recently, some of the, let's say the most important features that it has been retained that are considered to be positive will be features dealing with the encryption that it uses. so here we see in this example that we're lacking international rules that are going to be clickable to services that are similar. and that apply similarly around the world in comparison to the indian regulation that we're talking about right now. the digital services act propose is a very different approach. so there isn't a general monitoring obligation for social media platforms, for instance, to do when it comes to content that the host. but there is a because the digital services act basically takes on an earlier approach from the e commerce directive that we have in the european union. that also said we're going to give platform the regulatory subsidy. so we're not going to put this very high burden on platforms to make sure that they will know and they, they have an idea about everything that is happening there. so in europe,

this is going to be the continued regime. so we see already that there are these differences and we would definitely be better off having more international harmonization on this matter is i want to talk for a moment about the fact that what's up isn't just popular among citizens in india. it's also popular among politicians and political parties. the 200-1900 general election was referred to by many as the watch app election in india. so i want to ask you how much was watch app used as a vehicle to spread disinformation and manipulative. political messages during that election cycle, also, how much were political parties and politicians able to utilize the popularity and the power of whatsapp to their advantage. so what's up is one of the tech black form that has an are in a number tom's. it has the most number of users on lost count. my watch. i pad,

close to 400000000 users. and in combat as in facebook has around $300000000.00 around $700000000.00 of $1700000000.00. i'm sorry. it is also a platform that, that is used across age groups from the elderly to the, to the youth up what's up is used across the board. so of course, any messaging on what's up has a very wide spread and wide reach. saw whether it is for elections or in fact i would like to add even for businesses these days, a lot of small businesses are just misinformation, but that it just political or a political of nature. oh, there's a term we use an in depth called what's up university of because there is so much information that is being consumed by indians by our whatsapp. a lot of people believe every message they get on what's up saw during the elections. yes, they were a lot of well i every time that elections, whether it is state level or whether it is on a blue, on the national level. what's up if you were very effective toward what's up groups

or just mosse message into what's up? well if we i remember correctly, i think it was around the last elections last national elections when what's up to take a lot of steps to ensure curtailing the spread or fall of fake news in india including gul measures like all of stopping the number of times you can forward a particular message which has, which is in your still date. ok, so yes, what's up has big reach and it is not just common both and he was and get. it is a great tool in the hands of political parties, the government, and even businesses current. there's long been a problem with the spread of misinformation and, and fake news over messaging platforms like what's happened, india, we know this. where is the line between what could be considered regulation and what is overreach and censorship and going after critics dissidents and you know,

rivals really the question with regard to the new deal. we don't charge the answer. right? because my thinking is your opinion, of course. so that there are on the margin of this duration, but can be label. now let us look at nice, very rude as we have been applied to this into me to different just now. what we are required by these, they should have been doing this mash, the most milton me with donald trump treats we labeling them as being on. we don't know that right now. this is something that was done by twitter on the meat of the gcs,

and very shortly after we saw the ring on the door. and what is, why do you need to be thinking that issue? so then let me know something i will trust with regards to the government's actions when it comes to free speech. now we have not to me and would mean a bit of a disaster come to read me. but then actually me go when it comes to the thing, you know, balance nationalists and mich free speech, whether it's in searcy, whether it's in other countries, in fact, and all of these platforms up together. and they said the function of the unless you get through the recording in rules and regulations as well. yeah. the jewish, he says we use a basin and huge the government is willing to

use the criminal law and you know, we don't have i mean all the people see is notch the quality of life to their friends and their force. right. so we have a problem here. we have a nice job in it. so it's something that's a tricky issue. but you where you governmental, where somebody is related to the link. let's go back to you. when you get ready, you can i think may credible factors others we've actually you know, we do then on the, on the stand on that meant to be applied to a burn on not only not like them but the criminal law. and for me to leave

a message, a ration where he's very fine miss selma nation and he's very, i need to learn regularly. she ought to be useful and be not me fine. you can visible, they're not, they're kind of like blunder, right. and the love like decency was defined anywhere from my so be like you how much you should expect across the board last there and the life. let me also points that i'm sorry to interrupt you. let me get back to you. actually about the point you were making about the chilling effect and in just a couple of minutes i did want to ask you about that is ago. let me go to you right now. i mean, a lot of critics of prime minister modi are saying that this is really driven by politics. what do you say? is there a political motive behind all this? well, it is, i, in my understanding is it is

a mix. a few things. people who are saying that this politically motivated of the correct the reasons seem correct and accurate of the way the government has been using social media platforms over the last 7 years. just build the case for people who say that it is politically more to waited for instance of just earlier this your, when the government was facing flat for the mismanagement of the 2nd day of school with 19, we know that the pushed twitter to take off certain post and facebook, so this new why the laws will be another weapon in their hand in that, that sense to get all of the clamp down on voices that they don't like that out against them. at the same time, i believe that the another reason for rules like a knowledge was said that a lot of these rules are of sort of, you know, slightly outlandish, i would say. and that i believe was also because the policy lacks and wants in many

ways. and this has been a problem with a lot of technology related policies that they didn't government has introduced or the last many years, including things like e commerce, policies, etc. so i feel it's a combination of what, but definitely there is politics and more. no one can deny that catalina. let me ask you a technical question, because you know what's happened. other platforms have said that, you know, this essentially is an impossible task. so i want to ask you, how difficult would it actually be for what's app or a messaging platform like signal to comply with these regulations? i mean, what would it require for them to trace these chaps? do they actually have, you know, the kind of infrastructure to do this right now, and how would they have to change the architecture of these platforms to try to come into compliance? so that's a very good point. and i think that when we're speaking about messaging platforms at which as we heard before, so in certain different groups, they might be used in

a very different way. so for instance, ab what's being used as actually disseminating information, as opposed to simply having conversations. because as i said, they are messaging platform, this is going to be rather different than for instance, social media platforms that have been also voluntarily taking on obligation for instance, to remove content that can be very, very harmful such as child pornography. so i think for, for what's happened was signal given their nature, this is even going to be more difficult. because for instance, to my knowledge, i would be very curious to hear also from my fellow called panelists. if this is the case in indiana to my knowledge, one that does not have content moderators, i note from what i know from the functionalities and the importance of what's app. i believe you can report different types of accounts, but and i believe that you can also report content, but it might be a very different infrastructure than what we see with social media companies. and

that is, it is quite troubling that at the end of the day, a lot of the content, moderation decisions have been left to the devices of social media platforms. and i think the example of politicians having opinions and sharing information, whether we qualify that as misinformation disinformation or assembly opinions on social media is a very good example because, you know, we're, we're not asking the questions that we're, we are looking very much at what twitter has done with political speech, we're really asking the question of whether it's for twitter to determine whether a politician should or should not express opinions on that platform. but at the same time, let's look around at the regulatory framework. do we have political speech covered? man is really a fixed for social media. do we have a law that says this is what a politician has in terms of protection or in terms of obligation on their with respect to their again, engagement with social media. i know that in the united states there have been, there has been at least one case with taken. again, it's actually donald trump,

when he used to be the president. and when he used to block individuals using his twitter account, that was then the official twitter account. so you see there, there is simply a regulatory gap because we need to have some rules of engagement with respect to water publications can and cannot do social media. current and we only have about a minute 30 left. let me just ask you, you're making a point before about the chilling effect that's going on in india because of this. how much does this all have the potential to erode freedoms and also to weaken democracy and the spirit of democracy in india? i think it's more than the word of democracy. i think it's very specific. he was able to say 3. now whether it's your conversation about you know, with your, with your box or with anyone out from your accountant or with your doctor. not maintenance is something that would inhibit

what you couldn't even say to that. so in terms of the maxim coming into your more intimate messaging, me now it's already happening to agree with my got, you know, so let's see here, but it's already happening. thought in the end of the mechanism, it's already happening on on the internet. the premises, i can see a big problem. so i spoke about the trans national nature, all of the new stuff to me and why is the negative effect hill? we have in fact, right also we can move like the gc out in europe mostly. so there are ripple effects or the job, but i think that this is also an opportunity to strengthen dearer to international

law as a global people. all right, we've run a times, we're gonna have to leave the conversation there. thanks so much. all of our guess it took a sharma put it catalina, go on to, and kurt and andy and thank you to for watching. you can see this and all of our previous programs again, anytime by visiting our website, algeria dot com and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is at a j inside story. for me me how much room and whole team here for now. the after days, rare freezing temperature is blanket and the 2nd largest state in the us power stations are all back on line. that after unusually high demand lead to rolling blackouts, texas hasn't seen a storm system like this in 35 years. and it's clear it systems simply weren't up

to the task. transmission lines taken down by, i still have left nearly 200000 without power. but now checks and space, a new crisis. 7000000 people a quarter of the state were being asked to boil their water if they hadn't at all. because the cold weather has let broken pipes and taken water treatment plants offline. grocery store shelves are largely they're leaving residents lined up in their cars for food and water. presidential biden says he's clearing the entire state. the disasters out there is hope, sustained temperatures above freezing beginning saturday. in the next episode of science in the golden age, i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval period in the field of astronomy. copernicus owes this day to these medieval astronomers from the golden age actually in many ways with the computers of those

that you can use it to find the time you could navigate science in a golden age. with jimmy holly on a jazz either o israel's prime, it finds the hold onto his job and political rivals join forces to form a government without him. ah sammy say that this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming up, molly is suspended from the west african regional block off through the 2nd qu in less than the year. but the group stops show.