The AltNews funding case and Razorpay’s data privacy worry | Mint

Twitter has taken the Indian government to court over what it views as “arbitrary” and “disproportionate” directions to take down content and block accounts. Last year, Meta Platforms Inc’s WhatsApp began legal proceedings in New Delhi against India’s new internet rules demanding chat traceability. Such an obligation, the service contends, will force it to break its promise of end-to-end encryption, posing risks to users. Beyond those high-profile cases, though, a bigger worry is the deteriorating operational environment for ordinary digital businesses in India. Their rapid growth is routinely applauded, but the minefields they navigate don’t get enough attention. This changed last week with Razorpay, a Bengaluru startup that acts as a payment gateway. The firm unwittingly kicked up a storm after it emerged that it had been compelled to supply customer data in a police investigation against AltNews, a fact-checking website that annoys the government. On 17 June, Mohammed Zubair, one of AltNews’ two co-founders, was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. The original complaint was over a tweet referencing an old Bollywood movie he sent more than four years ago. Since then, however, the Delhi Police has widened the charges to include alleged violation of a law that prohibits non-profits from accessing foreign funds without registration. AltNews received money “through Razorpay from Pakistan, Syria, Australia, Singapore, and the UAE, which all require further investigation,” a public prosecutor told the magistrate at the techie-turned-journalist’s bail hearing on 2 July. Zubair’s lawyer has denied all charges.

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