MeitY issued notices to Google and Apple requiring removal of seven battery management apps capable of Bluetooth-based remote disabling of e-rickshaws. The action relies on potential loss of Section 79 safe-harbor protections rather than Section 69A. Two apps have already been taken down following viral videos of vehicles being switched off.
Government intervention protects marginalized e-rickshaw drivers from tech-enabled sabotage that threatens livelihoods in the absence of strong labor protections.
“Platform accountability and harm to vulnerable informal-sector workers”
Conservative
Notices represent appropriate sovereign enforcement against platforms that enabled misuse undermining public order and small entrepreneurs.
“Law enforcement, infrastructure reliability, and failure of self-regulation”
Libertarian
Threats to safe-harbor protections constitute state coercion that overrides voluntary market solutions and property rights of device owners.
“Non-interference, decentralized remedies, and expansion of bureaucratic control”
Devil's Advocate
All three perspectives accept without evidence that the apps exist mainly for pranks and ignore dual-use functions, physical-proximity limits, and lack of incident quantification.
“Prior restraint precedent, technical realities, and unexamined assumptions about harm”