The Central Government of India has expressed its inability to curb the spread of the Blue Whale challenge, a dangerous online game that has so far claimed the lives of several youth in the country, saying that it was not technically possible to do so.
Attorney general KK Venugopal made the statement to a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, adding that the Centre had carried out several rounds of deliberations with scientists, IT experts as well as internet and social media companies but had failed identify possible solutions to the problem.
The government highlighted that it did not have the necessary technical expertise to block the game noting that the Blue Whale game was being communicated via “one-to-one communication through encrypted/ secretive communication links.” This made it difficult to identify and intercept communications related to the game.
Government Lacks Technical Expertise
In its petition filed with the court, the government said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had approached several academic and R&D institutions, cyber security organizations like Amrita University , Indian Computer Emergency Response Team(CRET-In) and Data Security Council of India(DSCI) for solutions. Based on their inputs, the MeitY had determined that there was no concrete evidence available regarding the source and the availability of the game on internet/ social media.
The Centre had submitted its response in light of an SC order that asked the government to disclose the actions taken to curb the menace in India.
The SC bench had passed the order on the basis of a plea filed by advocate Sneha Kalita asking for a government directive to ban the game. The petitioner stated that there was an immediate need to ban the Blue Whale game and raise awareness on it especially amongst the youngsters since so far at least 200 people had committed suicide after playing the game.
According to the government’s filing, the Centre had held discussions with Google, Facebook, and other major social media companies but they too had expressed their inability to block the game’s availability. The government said that specific inputs like website address, IP address etc were required to block or remove related content or apps on the internet. Without such information it was difficult to develop technical solutions to identify or block the game. It also stated that using keywords to filter out the game may result in genuine information related to such terms getting blocked.
Centre Taking Action To Prevent The Game’s Spread By Educating Children
With the Centre expressing its inability to block the game, the Supreme Court stated that there was very little that it could do and closed the plea. The Court has however directed chief secretaries of all states to spread awareness among the students regarding the game and educate them on its dangers.
The Centre has also said that it is pursuing the policy of “prevention is better than cure” and was issuing circulars to all schools with respect to safe use of internet , to prevent the children from being attracted to the deadly game.
The government has also recommended that Facebook take proactive steps to identify users who may be depressed and are enticed to play the game, following which they could alert local police.
