India bans open source messaging apps on security grounds


GPT-4: India’s government has banned 14 messaging apps, including open source services Element and Briar, citing national security concerns in the Jammu and Kashmir region. The Free Software Community of India argues that the ban is based on a misunderstanding of how peer-to-peer and federated apps work and will not be effective, as terrorists can use alternative anonymous apps. The open source nature of these projects also makes bans futile, as the source code is readily available.
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