Karnataka HC directs Union Government to take legal steps to block Proton Mail in India

Switzerland-based Proton Mail is known for using encryption to protect email content both in transit and at rest, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can read the message, not even Proton. This end-to-end encryption has also landed Proton Mail in trouble.

Proton Mail is currently facing a ban in India due to its alleged misuse for sending hoax bomb threats to multiple schools in Chennai in February 2024. Due to the use of end-to-end encryption, Tamil Nadu police were unable to trace the sender.

Now Karnataka HC has directed the Union government to take legal steps to block Proton Mail in India. Justice M Nagaprasanna allowed the petition filed by M Moser Design Associated India Pvt Ltd, seeking a direction to the Union government to take steps necessary to ban the use of Proton Mail in India.

In the petition, the company has claimed that several of its female employees have been reportedly targeted through disturbing emails filled with obscene, abusive, and sexually explicit language. Some of these emails even included AI-generated deepfake images and vulgar content aimed at harassing and humiliating the women. Not only this, such emails were also sent to other employees, business associates, vendors, and even competitors, which resulted in causing damage to employees’ mental health and the company’s reputation.

According to the petitioner, Proton’s email service allows users to select India as their service location, which gives a false impression that the company is operating from within the territory. The petitioner also mentioned that its client filed a police complaint to investigate a vulgar email sent about its employee using Proton Mail in November 2024, but the law enforcement agencies were not able to do much as Proton Mail declined to share details of the sender.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, after hearing the matter, directed the Center to act under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2009, along with Rule 10 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, to block access to Proton Mail. It is also directed that till such proceedings are taken up and decided by the Union of India, the offending URLs shall be blocked forthwith.