WhatsApp vs Modi: Meta company threatens to leave India
WhatsApp LLC and its parent company, Meta (also the owner of Facebook), have filed a petition with the Delhi High Court, contesting the Information Technology Rules (IT Rules) implemented in 2021, formally known as the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. These rules mandate significant social media intermediaries (those with more than 50 lakh followers) to track chats and establish means to identify the initial sender, or primary source of information.
The messaging platform told a bench of the court led by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan on Thursday, April 25 that it will have to exit India if forced to comply with the IT Rules since that would mean breaking end-to-end encryption of messages, which is the USP of the platform.
“As a platform, we are asserting that if compelled to compromise encryption, WhatsApp will withdraw,” stated the lawyer for WhatsApp, as quoted by the news agency ANI.
WhatsApp contends that the requirement of revealing the primary source of information infringes upon user privacy and was introduced without any prior consultation. “Such a requirement is not present anywhere else globally, not even in Brazil,” noted the lawyer representing WhatsApp, according to news agency PTI.
The Union government, for its part, has maintained that there must be a mechanism for authorities to trace the first sender of any information to safeguard social security.
While end-to-end encryption of messages is essential to maintaining the privacy of an individual, several legal experts and law enforcement agencies worldwide also argue that it should be allowed to be bypassed for tracking the origins of crimes such as the use of violent deepfakes, dissemination of child abuse material, propagation of fake news, etc., and holding perpetrators accountable.
Several similar petitions against the IT Rules are pending. The Supreme Court had transferred all of them to the Delhi High Court, to be heard together, on March 22. The Delhi High Court has listed WhatsApp’s case for August 14, and awaits the transfer of all other petitions.
