Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responded to opposition leaders’ claims on Tuesday that they had received a warning from Apple about “state-sponsored attackers” that might target their iPhones and other devices by saying that those who are unable to see the country’s progress are engaging in divisive politics. These warnings, according to the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, have been issued to citizens of 150 nations.
“From the mail sent from Apple, it can be understood that they have no clear information, they have sent alerts on the basis of an estimate. This is vague. Apple has released a clarification that the allegations by compulsive critics are not true. Such advisories have been sent to people in 150 countries. The people who cannot see the growth of the country are doing destructive politics,” Vaishnaw said in a press briefing.
The minister further said that this is a falsehood that some compulsive critics are trying to spread.
“Whenever these compulsive critics do not have any major issue, the only thing they say is surveillance. They tried this a few years back as well, we conducted a proper investigation, and the matter was supervised by the judiciary also but nothing came out of that including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who said that her two children’s phones were hacked but nothing of that sort happened. This is a falsehood that some compulsive critics are trying to spread,” he said.
Earlier in the day, a number of opposition politicians from various political parties, including Asaduddin Owaisi, Raghav Chadha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Shashi Tharoor, claimed that their Apple devices had been hacked. The leaders released allegedly taken screenshots from their Apple devices showing the warning.