Express View: Considering that state action can often be arbitrary and that arbitrariness needs to be guarded against, irrespective of the ideological leanings of the ruling dispensation, a careful balance must be struck, leaning towards protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, with the courts stepping in to reinforce the guardrails.
The basis for this are multiple deepfake videos of politicians circulating on WhatsApp, and the government is understood to be in the process of sending an order to the messaging company under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, seeking the identity of the people who first shared the videos on the platform.