The Madras High Court on Friday directed social media platform Telegram to immediately block and delete any posts or “chatbots” flagged by insurance company Star Health Insurance for leaking its customer data that was hacked recently.
In an interim order, Justice K Kumaresh Babu directed Star Health Insurance to “send an email with the username and the URL from which such bots are posted so Telegram can block and delete them.”
The Court was hearing a petition filed by Star Health against Telegram and five others after it discovered that the hacker was using the messaging app to leak sensitive company and customer data.
Senior Counsel S Ramasubramanium, who appeared for Star Health, told the Court that in the name of ethical hacking, those with access to its leaked data were making sensitive information public.
Ramasubramanium urged the Court to pass an injunction against Telegram to ensure no such data was posted on its platform.
“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,” Ramasubramanium told the Court.
However, the counsel for Telegram told the Court that it does not have the power to “patrol” and weed out chatbots on the insurance company’s data.
“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 counsel said.
The Court then asked whether Telegram can trace where such posts were being made from.
The social media platform said it can only trace it if there is a specific court order asking it to do so.
“The problem is, in these social media platforms anyone from anyone can post. They often use VPN from other countries. Anyway, the damage will be done because they can't block unless it is posted,” the Court observed.
It then directed Telegram to immediately act on the emails sent to it by Star Health Insurance asking for particular bots to be taken down.