BENGALURU: Facebook has taken a tough stand against storing data where it operates as the company’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday outlined a new direction for the social networking giant, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram. Facebook, which has been embroiled in controversies around misuse of customer data in elections to its platform being used to promote violence, said it is willing to be blocked in a few countries.

“There's an important difference between providing a service in a country and storing people's data there,” Zuckerberg wrote in a 3,200 word posted on the company’s website. He added that Facebook has chosen “not to build data centers in countries that have a track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression” as “it could make it easier for those governments to take people's information.”

While Zuckerberg did not mention anything about India or any specific country, he added that “storing data in more countries also establishes a precedent that emboldens other governments to seek greater access to their citizen's data and therefore weakens privacy and security protections for people around the world.”

Zuckerberg’s statements come at a time when Indian government is in the middle of legislating several policies like Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 and Draft E-commerce Policy which requires companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon to store sensitive data of Indian users in the country. Facebook’s plans to launch payments within its WhatsApp messaging service also hit a hurdle last year when central bank RBI came out with data localisation norms. After realising RBI is firm on its stand, it is expected to be compliant with the norms in the next eight-nine months. WhatsApp has also started a copy of payments data in India after RBI's data localisation circular.

Its messaging service WhatsApp, which offers end-to-end encryption for users, has resisted demands by the Indian government to enable traceability of messages to curb rumours. In his statement, Zuckerberg has also said Facebook will work on end-to-end encryption for all private communication though he added his firm will work with law enforcement agencies “to build the appropriate safety systems that stop bad actors as much as we possibly can within the limits of an encrypted service.”

"Facebook is surrounded by lobbying and data theft controversies. Mark's statement shows a veiled threat to Indian law makers, who will be heavily dependent on Facebook and WhatsApp in the upcoming general elections," said Virag Gupta, lawyer and cyber expert. Gupta has also been instrumental with recent court proceedings of WhatsApp in India that were filed by the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change(CASC) last year.

While through various industry bodies Facebook has opposed data localisation push, instead proposing “data certification” which meet standards on protection and privacy. Zuckerberg’s statement, which outlined its push by the company towards private encrypted messaging service, is one of the first time a top executive has spoken about the issue which it is facing in other countries as well.

When contacted, a Facebook India spokesperson declined to comment on the implications of the Zuckerberg’s statement for India. Right now Facebook does not have a data center in India but has one in Singapore.

India is the largest market in terms of users for Facebook at 300 million in January, well ahead of second-ranked United States with 210 million, according to Statista. WhatsApp had 200 million monthly active users in India according to last official statistics disclosed in February 2018, a number which has significantly increased since then.

