The Supreme Court was moved by a transfer petition filed by Facebook Inc last week. The social media company was objecting to the Madras HC hearing a PIL that could have possibly seen Aadhaar details linked to social media accounts across platforms.
The original PIL was filed by Antony Clement Rubin in July last year. It's something the government has been talking about doing, as a way to authenticate social media identities and prevent the spread of fake news and hoax messages, especially on WhatsApp.
Now, the Supreme Court has blocked the Madras HC, saying they can continue to hear the PIL but cannot make a final order in the case.
The PIL encompassed all social media platforms meaning, if the HC had supported the claim, you would have to link your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and other online accounts with your Aadhaar ID. The most-affected would have been WhatsApp however, which is currently only linked to a phone number. More importantly, linking Aadhar to that and allowing police to track the origin of a message would have meant breaking the apps end-to-end encryption.
That's essentially what Facebook has objected to the HC deciding. The encryption is after all WhatsApp's defining feature. From a user perspective, the move to link Aadhaar would certainly help police catch people inciting fear and hate through the messaging app. However, it would also open people up to harassment and censorship by the government and other authorities.
There are in fact two similar cases pending before the high courts of Bombay and Madhya Pradesh as well. The Supreme Court has now issued notices to the Centre, as well as Alphabet Inc., Twitter, YouTube and others that would be affected by this ruling, and has sought a response by September 13.
So now, it depends on when the case is heard in the Supreme Court and how they decide on the matter. And for all our sakes, let's hope they learn towards blocking compulsory Aadhaar linking, like they did with other services.