The Madras high court on Friday directed social media application Telegram to take down and block all posts or ‘chatbots’ flagged by the insurance company Star Health Insurance after its customer database was recently hacked. The high court court also urged Star Health to share the data leak details with Telegram for its successful deletion.
Justice K Kumaresh Babu, in his interim order, directed the insurance company to “send an email with the username and the URL from which such bots are posted so Telegram can block and delete them.”
The Madras High Court was hearing a petition filed by Star Health against Telegram and other platforms after its database was hacked, and it discovered that hackers are using messaging platforms to make sensitive information public.
The counsel for Star Health Insurance urged the court to pass an injunction against Telegram for posting sensitive information, but the messaging platform said it was unable to search for leaks on its own. Telegram agreed to delete the leaked data if the insurer gave them details.
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“By now it is open knowledge that star has been hacked so they are allowing for hacked information to be posted. They keep posting these pods. By the time we flag it and it's taken down, the damage is done. So, I request for an injunction,” Star Health's counsel told the court, as quoted by Bar & Bench.
{{/usCountry}}“By now it is open knowledge that star has been hacked so they are allowing for hacked information to be posted. They keep posting these pods. By the time we flag it and it's taken down, the damage is done. So, I request for an injunction,” Star Health's counsel told the court, as quoted by Bar & Bench.
{{/usCountry}}To this, Telegram's counsel replied, “I (Telegram) don't have the power to patrol or police all bots and take them down. I can only block or, take down a channel if a particular violation is flagged. If I keep looking through all posts to search for Star health and take it off, I will be in violation of the IT Act.”
The court further observed that on social media platforms like Telegram, anyone can make posts using VPN from other countries. “Anyway, the damage will be done because they can't block unless it is posted,” the bench said.
The court further directed Telegram to immediately respond to and act on the emails sent to it by Star Health Insurance and take down certain bots posting sensitive information.