'THEN WHATSAPP GOES': FIRM WARNS DELHI HIGH COURT OF INDIA EXIT OVER ENCRYPTION
WhatsApp, the world's leading instant-messaging platform, on Thursday told the Delhi high court that the company would leave India if it was compelled to break encryption of messages and calls.
"As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes," WhatsApp's lawyer told a Delhi high court bench, which was hearing the firm's plea against the amended information-technology rules.
WhatsApp, opposing the amendments to the IT rules, claimed the rules were introduced without consultation. It said they were against the privacy of users.
Tejas Karia, appearing for WhatsApp, told the court that people use the mobile application for its privacy features.
The firm argued that the rules violate the fundamental rights of the users under Articles 14, 19 and 21.
The lawyer claimed no such rules exist anywhere else in the world. He said WhatsApp would have to keep a "complete chain" as it would not know which message would need to be decrypted.
"It means millions and millions of messages will have to be stored for a number of years," he said, per TOI.
Facebook and WhatsApp have moved the court challenging the new rules, saying they are in violation of the right to privacy.
The central government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has opposed the two companies' petition, saying WhatsApp had violated the fundamental right by denying users any mechanism for dispute resolution.
The ministry has told the Delhi high court that if the rules were not implemented, the law enforcement agencies would have difficulty in tracing the origin of fake messages.
It said such a message could disturb the peace and harmony in the country and could pose public order issues.
Earlier, WhatsApp had said in its statement that complying with the rules would lead to a breach of privacy.
"Requiring messaging apps to 'trace' chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy," it had said.
The Central government had framed the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, which direct OTT and digital portals to devise respective grievance redressal systems.
Under the rules, social media platforms are required to disclose the identity of the "first originator of information" when asked.
With inputs from ANI
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2024-04-26T02:10:15Z dg43tfdfdgfd