New Delhi: The telecom regulator has sought powers under the Information Technology (IT) Act to take action against call management apps and digital platforms, such as Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall, for tagging and blocking calls originating from 1400 and 1600 as spam despite the special numbering series being assigned for commercial communications, said people with knowledge of the development.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) cannot take action against such platforms at present since, as intermediaries, they fall under the purview of IT Act. The platforms are not licence holders under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), unlike telecom operators, which have to mandatorily comply with directions issued by the regulator.
“The intention is not to regulate the apps, but in the IT Act there is a provision that if the law is violated by an app, the ministry or administrative authority concerned can initiate action against them,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
“While there are safe harbour provisions, the apps have to follow the law of land. It has come to our notice that some of the apps are violating Trai regulations,” said the official.
Safe harbour rules refer to legal provisions that shield organisations from regulatory liability, provided they meet specific, predefined guidelines.
The regulator wants to be designated as an “authorised agency” under the Act, which will allow it to formally notify the platforms regarding the violations and seek compliance. Officials said the electronics and IT ministry is believed to have agreed to the demand and now the DoT will initiate the next course of action.
Queries sent to Trai remained unanswered.
Officials said such unwanted tagging or blocking hampers legitimate commercial communications and even government initiatives. “The worst part is that due to wrongful tagging, enterprises may tend to revert to normal 10-digit numbers, thereby increasing spam and consumer distrust,” said a second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Truecaller said in response to ET’s queries that it remains compliant with Trai’s mandate of not spam tagging or auto blocking any designated series numbers.
“To clarify further, even if Truecaller has detected a particular number from the designated series as spam, we will not tag it as spam. Note that Truecaller receives lakhs of spam reports against some numbers, but in compliance with the Trai mandate, does not show them as spam,” said a company spokesperson.
