Nowadays, cases related to ‘Digital Arrest Scam’ are increasing across the country. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of this. CJI Surya Kant said that we will issue instructions in the matter by tomorrow. Amicus Curiae told the Supreme Court that this matter is not limited to WhatsApp only but applies to all chat apps. If these platforms are being used for scamming, there should be a ‘kill switch’ (a facility to disconnect the connection) after a specified time.
Amicus Curiae said that ‘it is not necessary that this time be of one or two hours. This is not what we suggest WhatsApp’s AI might suggest. The suggestion is that AI can be used to determine the correct time frame. The first step may be a pop-up warning during the call. Which alerts the user that they may become a victim of a scam. The second step could be an actual ‘kill switch’ that disconnects the call to give the potential victim a chance to pause, understand the situation and allow others to intervene.
What did CJI Surya Kant say?
At the same time, the Supreme Court suggested creating a separate definition for ‘digital arrest’, which could have serious legal consequences. CJI Surya Kant asked whether any top agency could not look into this case? Secondly, do you need to formally define the term digital arrest in criminal law? This includes things like extortion and robbery. Do you need to define it as a separate crime with serious consequences? There should also be a provision that when something is found against an accused, his property should be confiscated.
Justice Bagchi spoke about deepfake
Speaking on this matter, Justice Bagchi said that now we have deepfakes, they can be used for fraud and impersonating someone else. You fight with the existing laws, but you also need to improve them or change them. He said that we cannot define any crime under Article 142.
Leave a Reply